. The Caribbean forester. Forests and forestry Caribbean Area Periodicals; Forests and forestry Tropics Periodicals. October 1951 173 were circulated throughout the lake to the present points of emergence. Trees once growing on the surface of the lake, as in the case of contemporary island vegetation, may have contributed some of these materials. The vegetable remains found in many of the ellipsoidal pores in the tar have led past workers to speculate that these are frag- ments of the vegetation involved in the original formation of the pitch. The author collected plant fragments from these po
. The Caribbean forester. Forests and forestry Caribbean Area Periodicals; Forests and forestry Tropics Periodicals. October 1951 173 were circulated throughout the lake to the present points of emergence. Trees once growing on the surface of the lake, as in the case of contemporary island vegetation, may have contributed some of these materials. The vegetable remains found in many of the ellipsoidal pores in the tar have led past workers to speculate that these are frag- ments of the vegetation involved in the original formation of the pitch. The author collected plant fragments from these pores as the blocks are being dug. About a pint of plant remains was amassed in two hours. The fragments were not abundant and were found only in the largest pores. The smaller pores were generally filled with water. It appears that the pores are formed by gases generated during bacterial decay of the vegetable material enveloped in the tar. The greater the mass of vegetable material, the greater the amount of gas formed and so the larger the pore. The majority of the plant materials found in these pores were frag- ments of the leaves of Clusia rosea. Other identifiable materials were leaf fragments of Mangifera indica; petioles and leaf skeletons of Miconia sp.; a small piece of a woody stem of a monocotyledon which was probably Dra- cena, a common fence-row plant of the area; roots of a monocotyledon, probably a sedge; two endocarps of Mangifera indica, the mango; a fragment of the fruit of Moringa oleifera, the horseradishtree, and three seeds which appeared to be those of Gliricidia. It is not difficult to locate the source of these materials nor to explain how these very lightweight fragments became involved in the pitch. The bottoms of nearly all the canals on the surface of the lake have ac- cumulations of leaves, either blown in by the wind, carried in by surface drainage of the lake periphery, or fallen from the plants now growing on the surface of the lake (Fig. 2).. Fi
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