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 prepared 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' the material needed. Any botanist who would devote three months to the thorough exploration of the valley forests of Guatemala ought to add not less than a hundred 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 vegetation, 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 species 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 twentyfive 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 will be of little 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. eight feet in diameter, and spruces of little less size. Oaks also of several species are abundant; but the palm family almost disappears in the dryer soil, only the cabbagepalm climbing out of the rich lowlands, and that is not abundant enough to give character to the vegetation. While in the lowlands the ground is devoid of sod, here the grass carpets the soil, extending to the very tree-trunks, and is kept in fine order by the numerous sheep. Agaves are found on the hillsides, creepers like the clematis take the place of the vejucos, and stevias, bouvardias, and dahlias that of gingers and marantas. The fourth region is quite as distinct as either of the others. It comprises the dry lava plains where the changes of diurnal temperature are considerable, and where the soil, though rich, is scant and insufficiently watered. Here are found the calabash-tree (Crescentia cujete), espina blanca, or gum arabic, and the cockspur (Acacia spadicifera); while a coarse grass covers the ground between the lava blocks. In Guatemala there are two families of plants, - Palm and Orchid, presenting numerous species and of attractive and beautiful appearance, at the same time by no means devoid of commercial importance. Chief among palms stands the cohune (Attalea cohune), known also as manáca and corozo. When young, the palm has no stem, its enormous leaves rising from the ground more than thirty feet. The rhachis, or midrib, of the pinnate fronds is of a rich red color, and larger round than a man's wrist, the distinct, conduplicate divisions being long and broad. Mr. Morris estimates a leaf he saw in British Honduras at sixty feet in length and eight feet in breadth. I have never seen one more than forty feet long and five wide; but this is not an uncommon size of the manáca as it is cut for thatching, one leaf extending across the roof. After remaining some years in the manáca state, the stem begins to elongate, and as it rises, the leaves become smaller, as is the case with the coconut and other palms so far as known. The leaf-stems are persistent, giving the tree a rough, untidy look, but doubtless having a purpose to fulfil in the economy of Nature. This palm is now known as corozo, and begins to fruit. The male inflorescence is an immense mass of more than thirty thousand staminate flowers in a compound raceme between four and five feet long; these have a heavy, not disagreeable odor, and attract a great many bees and wasps, so that on one occasion the mozo who climbed the stem and cut for me a fine specimen was badly stung. These insects were so persistent after a great deal of shaking that the camera was used as quickly as possible, specimens were saved, and the spadix was, with the too-attractive flowers, thrown into the river. The pollen, which under the microscope shows a form exactly like a baker's roll, is in such abundance from the four hundred and fifty thousand stamens that it would fill a pint measure. The spathe, or cover of the inflorescence, looks like leather, is deeply furrowed on the outside, and would make a commodious bath-tub for a child. The fertile spadix has shorter branches, with the rather large flowers succeeded by from five to ten nuts, the whole bunch, which is about five feet long and weighs more than a hundred pounds, bearing from eight hundred to a thousand nuts. These nuts are two and a half inches long, and covered with a fibrous husk and so thick a shell that the valuable kernel cannot be extracted |