FORESTS OP PORTO RICO. 27 



source of cheap wood supply for general use, where it is most needed, 

 in and around the coast cities, and would yield a considerable income 

 to the government through the sale of the wood and other products. 



Dry Tidal Woodlands. 



The dry tidal woodland is confined to the sandy or gravelly soil 

 areas skirting the open shore or lying directly behind the mangrove 

 type in the sheltered embayments. While its former extent and 

 distribution can be reasonably well denned, its original composition 

 can only vaguely be surmised. Its sole representatives at the present 

 time are groves of coconut palm; the dry deciduous forests of more 

 or less strongly modified composition, due to the intermingling of 

 typical shore species such as uvero (14) and others; and the open 

 shrub growths of these latter species alone. 1 The coconut palm type 

 will be considered in more detail elsewhere as will also the dry decid- 

 uous forests. 



EASTERN LITTORAL WOODLANDS. 



The littoral woodland is readily distinguishable in the East Indies and adjacent 

 continental areas, where it has been more or less carefully studied and described, par- 

 ticularly in Java. At present two of the most conspicuous trees planted in and around 

 San Juan are from this formation, the almendra (123) and the more recently intro- 

 duced Casuarina equisetifolia (Australian beefwood) . Other characteristic tree species 

 of the eastern littoral are Cycas circinalis, Pandanus (several species), Calophyllum 

 inophyllum (Guttiferae), Cerbera odollam (Apocynaceae), Hibiscus tiliaceus and Thes- 

 pesia populnea ("Emmajagua" and "Santa Maria," respectively, of Porto Rico), 

 (Malvaceae), Hernandia peltata (Hernandiaceae), Heritiera littoralis (Sterculiaceae), and 

 various Leguminosae (Inocarpus edulis, species of Albizzia, Cynometra, Erythrina, Pon- 

 gamia glabra, Sophora tomentosa, and others). 



Moist Deciduous Forests. 



Transitional between the littoral woodlands and the rain-forest 

 formations in all probability originally occurred the moist deciduous 

 forests. On the north side of the island this formation occupied the 

 limestone belt lying between the coast and the central mountains 

 and extending from San Juan west to Aguadilla. On the south side it 

 very likely was confined largely to the middle and upper south slopes 

 of the central mountain clay soils. Little forest growth of any sort, 

 however, now remains on these areas. Particularly is this true of 

 the south slopes of the Cordillera Central, where the trees are scattered 



\ The failure of plant geographers to recognize and segregate this information in the West Indies is prob- 

 ably due to the fact that the sites where this formation had formerly attained most characteristic develop- 

 ment have long been exclusively appropriated by man for the cultivation of the coconut palm. Else- 

 where, possibly by cutting and the more aggressive competition on the part of the closely allied dry decidu- 

 ous formation, its composition has been so modified as to make these two formations scarcely distinguish- 

 able one from the other. 



