the character of a dryland forest as is shown by the presence of 
such trees like the almacigo which generally relegated to the mid¬ 
dle or upper slopes of the dry or well-drained slopes and ridges 
of the highest hills. Many of the trees in this seemingly wet for 
est area are deciduous, which is another character indicating that 
excessive dryness prevails daring a part of the year. At the some 
time the undergrowth is so impenetrable as to indicate that the 
upper, story or crown cover is open and thus permits the light to 
pass through and to encourage the abundant development of the un¬ 
dergrowth, which is not the rule in a true rain forest where abun¬ 
dant soil moisture is present all the year round. 
Thus, while the forest may seem exceedingly dense on first} 
sight, a closer inspection of the crown cover and forest floor give 
ebundent evidence that enough of light is left through the crown 
cover to encourage the growth of vines, shrubs, and low useless 
forest trees or tree weeds, each ss the numerous ingss, eeeropias, 
membrlllioc, and a multitude of others of greater or lesser value. 
2 he intense struggle for existence in these river bottom or low¬ 
land areas is, therefore, not among the older trees, but among the 
seedling and the young sndethchjoknghavo to compete with the low 
brush and the fast-growing kinds that generally overpower them. 
93hese trees of the better kinds that succeed in forcing their way 
through the dense undergrowth into the upper story, where light 
ik sufficient for their further successful development, usually re 
ceive injuries or deformities which they bear through life and 
which $1 ifits them to withstand the wind and weather until they 
have attained maturity cr merchantable sizes. A close examination 
of the dominant and overtopping trees now in the forest show that 
those which are now large enough to sake suitable saw logs are in 
