FORESTS OF POETO EICO. 29 



formerly covering the entire central uplands of the island, including 

 the valley plains of the large rivers, and reaching quite to the coast 

 on the east and west ends of the island. They undoubtedly attained 

 their richest development in the bottoms and sheltered slopes of the 

 larger river basins, but these being the most productive and the most 

 accessible, were the first to be stripped of their forest wealth. There 

 is little doubt that the greater part of this splendid natural resource 

 was never utilized, but was felled and burned. What remains is but 

 a poor example of this once magnificent forest domain. 



The rain-forest from a distance looks not unlike our northern 

 deciduous forests, except where groups of palms or the yagruma (136) 

 occur in mixture with the broadleaf trees or where the bright-colored 

 blossoms of some flowering tree or epiphytic plant perched high in 

 the crown of its towering host interrupts the green of the background. 

 The foliage presents a variety of the duller and more somber greens, 

 but lacks entirely the fresh new green of the spring foliage in the 

 north. The crown level is also less regular than that of our northern 

 woods. Individual trees with wide-spreading crowns tower far above 

 the general level, the whole presenting a jagged and haphazard appear- 

 ance. On closer inspection a further contrast is apparent in the 

 greater number of trees with compound leaves, such as cedro (71), 

 guaraguao (74), and many others. The crown of the average tree of 

 the rain-forest is very much less branched than that of the northern 

 deciduous forest tree, there being but few main branches, themselves 

 only slightly branched, so that the tree has a very irregular appear- 

 ance. The leaves are highly diversified, not infrequently glossy, and 

 of a fine leathery texture, and though pinnate seldom finely so or 

 felted with hairs. They are usually set obliquely with relation to the 

 direct overhead fight and often aggregated in tufts at the ends of long, 

 bare branches. 



The interior of the rain-forest is still more striking in contrast and 

 more haphazard in appearance than its exterior. The growing space 

 appears to be unequally utilized; in places the stand is very dense 

 and is matted and tangled with a profusion of thick-stemmed woody 

 lianas and countless epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and even 

 trees, covering every branch and extending to the tops of the tallest 

 trees; in other places the cover is very much broken, permitting great 

 patches of sunlight to reach the ground. In the denser parts the 

 ground is very sparsely covered, while in the openings palms and 

 other young trees, or a most detestable cutting grass, strive to occupy 

 the ground. True shrubs are inconspicuous, most of the undergrowth 

 being of the same species as the main forest cover. 



The soil in the forest is not only in large measure bare of herbaceous 

 growth, but it is very poor in vegetable mold. It is simply blackened 

 by the decaying vegetable matter. Humus, as we know it in the 



