oak. Besides these and the native cedars, there are mahogany, lignum-vitæ, coco-bolo, and other hardwoods. Some of these are exported for lumber, others the natives hollow out into canoes, some of which are of incredible size. I have seen a dugout, made from one gigantic tree trunk, so large that it was decked over and rigged as a two-masted schooner.
Under the trees, the ground is clogged with dense masses of tangled undergrowth, bound together with thorny creepers, and the rope-like tendrils of the liana vine. Worst of all to travel through are the mangrove
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/14-Man_O_Warsman.jpg/350px-14-Man_O_Warsman.jpg)
MAN O' WARSMAN.
swamps near the sea, for the branches of these bushes bend down to the ground and take root, so that it is like trying to walk through a wilderness of croquet wickets. Both here and in the jungle, a path must be cut with the machete, a straight, broad-bladed knife between three and four feet long, that is the great tool and weapon of tropical America. A skilled machatero, or wielder of the machete, can cut a trail through the jungle as fast as he cares to walk down it.
The great tree of Panama is the palm. There are