VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 327 
The standard tree is from that moment doomed, and 
wastes away in the murderous grasp of the vegetable 
anaconda. The matapalo may fall in the ruin of its 
decaying foster-parent, but not infrequently it has pre¬ 
pared for the emergency by sending out many a guy 
and splitting the main stem into numerous buttresses, 
so that it can stand alone — a very remarkable tree, and 
one often used as a boundary-mark. 
In this region of the river-bottoms we could linger 
long; but it must be left, for a scientific description of 
its treasures would fill many volumes of the size of 
this, and the explorer has not yet collected 1 the mate¬ 
rial needed. Any botanist who would devote three 
months to the thorough exploration of the valley for¬ 
ests of Guatemala ought to add not less than a hun¬ 
dred new species to the flora of the region, and also 
determine the species of most of the beautiful cabinet 
woods now known only by their native names. 2 
Climbing the hills brings one to a very distinct vegeta¬ 
tion, and here in the uplands are trees in masses; that is, 
there are whole forests of one or two species, and the 
representatives of the kinds most common in the cooler 
regions are found here. There are pine-trees as much as 
1 Professor Sereno Watson, of the Harvard College Herbarium, collected,, 
during two winter months in the Department of Izabal, five hundred spe¬ 
cies of plants, many of them new’ to science (Proceedings of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xxi. pp. 456 et seq.). Notes of some- 
of these will be found in the Appendix. He collected no less than twenty 
five species of palms. 
2 In the Appendix will be found a list of the woods under their local 
names; but as these vary in the different provinces, it w r ill be of litt e 
use in determining the trees from which they are obtained. Rosewood is 
said to be furnished by at least three trees not connected botanically, and 
the application of the name “cedar” is as puzzling. 
