Annual Reports of Academy of 
16 
and exploration in the Central and Western Cordilleras of the 
Andes. 
The train passed first across the mangrove marshes which skirt 
for many miles the western shore of Colombia, forming a uniform 
ribbon of dull green. Then passing inland and slightly upward, we 
entered the most luxuriant of tropical forests. Along the Pacific 
coast from Panama to Ecuador, this forest covers the lower slopes 
of the Western Andes, there catching the winds from the ocean 
and receiving the heaviest rainfall of the New World. Vegetation 
is rank, and the flora contains a high proportion of plants be¬ 
longing to families which prefer humid warmth. Wild bananas 
and their relatives abound, as do the massive herbs and succulent 
climbers of the Aroid family. Bamboos and palms are common. 
Back in the forest, tree-growth is so dense that little light breaks 
through. There is a great variety of trees in a tropical forest 
but little bloom is seen, so that the forest, for all its exuberant 
wealth of foliage, is decidedly sombre. Along the river course, 
and through the gorge of the Dagua, we saw most attractively 
the lowland tropical forest. 
Less than a score of miles from the wettest phase of this forest, 
above the curving gorge of the Dagua River and in a pocket, so 
placed that the winds from the Pacific have been previously inter¬ 
cepted by the first outlying ridge of the Andes, we entered an open 
grass-covered valley, so dry as to inhibit any growth of forest. 
As the train wound its way between the steep slopes we could see 
each stage of the transition. Below the gorge were giant Aroids, 
their leaves as massive as the well-known “elephant-ears”; above the 
gorge were giant leafless Cacti. Shrubs with silvery or yellowish 
leaves were typical of the upper Dagua valley. 
At the town of Dagua, in the open valley, the train left the river 
and wound its way upward, curve upon curve. The upper grass¬ 
lands into which we entered had at this time numerous flowers,— 
and very beautiful were the various species of ground orchids with 
their clusters of yellow, orange, or red flowers. Where rain is 
seasonal there will always be a time of beautiful bloom. 
The town of La Cumbre, where we made our first collecting base, 
is situated near the summit of the Western Andes. Here we could 
descend to open tropical slopes, or ascend into the subtropical forest. 
This forest of the mountains is far richer in air-plants than is that 
