Mosquito Coast
or RESERVE, a maritime tract of Nicaragua, having E. the Caribbean Sea, and S. the river San Juan, which separates it from Costa Rica. The river Segovia, which enters the Caribbean Sea near Cape Gracias a Dios, is the boundary with Honduras.
Next the sea, the surface is low and B C D E A. Eggs MOSQUITO B. Larva C. Pupa D. Male E. Female sucking his blood. They belong chiefly to broken by numerous lagoons, but graduthe genus Culex, or at least the family ally rises toward the interior. Mosquito Culicidæ. The mosquito of the West In- Coast is inhabited by people of mixed Indies and parts of America is C. mosquito. dian and African race, some 15,000 in Mosquitoes abound also in the tropical all, and by tribes of aboriginal Indians. parts of the Eastern World, and are Chief town, Bluefields; pop. (1917) 4,706. troublesome in the Polar regions. The Mosquito Coast was discovered by Colummale of the mosquito feeds on plant- bus in 1502, and appropriated by Spain. juices; it is the female which attacks From 1655 to 1850 it was an English proman. The scientific theory attributing tectorate, but in 1860 was made over to to the bites of mosquitoes the transmis- Nicaragua. After being for some time sion of malaria and yellow fevers has led under the protectorate of Great Britain to experiments by various physicians in the hospital in Havana, Cuba, by Dr. was reincorporated with Nicaragua by free resolution of the Indians and named Doty (during the summer of 1901) on the department of Zelaya, Nov. 20, 1894. Staten Island, N. Y., and by Surgeon- Recognized by Great Britain in 1905. climates, but are most abundant in damp liverworts. In mountain regions, the places. They are included with the supply the streams through weeks of from sudden storms, and in dry weather soak up the rain, and so prevent floods thick felts of moss and deep beds of peat my of nature, and of great interest in their life history. They are found in all climates, but are most abundant in damp places. They are included with the liverworts. In mountain regions, the thick felts of moss and deep beds of peat soak up the rain, and so prevent floods from sudden storms, and in dry weather supply the streams through weeks of drought. The life of a moss-plant seems to be endless. In some species cushions of marvelous regularity are formed; it enables individual plants to stand erect, and is of great importance in the process of fertilization. The capsules of many mosses are small sacs at the ends of their These contain the hair-like stalks. moss plant consists of a stem with leaves there grows in a few days a tiny threadlike plant, the protonema. Buds of young moss plants soon appear on this, and then, as a rule, the thread-plant dies. A moss plant consists of a stem with leaves and roots. The roots will grow out from any part of the plant that is kept dark and damp. Even from a detached leaf, roots and new plants will grow. By their branching habit, and by the death of the older parts, which leave the branches as separate plants, mosses are rapidly propagated, indeed in many species the production of spores is rare.
Classification. There are about 3,000 species, divided into four orders: (1) Bryceæ, which include the vast majority of genera. (2) Phascacex. (3) Andreaceæ, no operculum; the sporangium opens