70 
THE PLANT WORLD. 
trees and shrubs, sometimes so closely grown together that it is 
impossible to make a passage without constant resort to the 
machete. The general height of this vegetation is about six feet, 
in some portions perhaps rising slightly above this, with an occa¬ 
sional tree attaining to> twelve or fifteen feet, these latter stand¬ 
ing out like sentinels in the surrounding level sea of green foliage. 
The bark of nearly all of them is of a grey color, sometimes almost * 
Fig. 21. Cactus formation at Moujean Harbor, Little Inagua. Melocactus 
and Opuntia in the foreground, with the Agave common there. 
silvery. While some of the trees grow to the height mentioned 
above, most of them are dwarfs, four to six feet in height, sym¬ 
metrical in outline, but with trunks rarely over a foot or two 
long—indeed they have all the appearance of the dwarfed tree 
produced by the Japanese. The leaves are all firm in texture, 
and give one the impression of great powers of resistance. 
While the general appearance of the scrub is that described 
above, there is a region on the south coast which bears but little 
