NATURAL HISTORY OF COSTA RICA — RIDGWAY. 313 



ing aroid, the Monstera deliciosa, with immense caladium-like but 

 divided leaves, and bearing an edible fruit. Most of the trees were 

 unknown to me by name, but among them were many gigantic fig 

 trees with grotesquely compound stems (grown from the slender 

 aerial roots which originally descended from the top of some tree on 

 which the fig grew as an epiphyte, the parent tree itself long since 

 strangled and decayed). 9 It being the dry season, a large proportion 

 of the trees were quite leafless. Here, and here only, was seen the 

 magnificent leguminous tree called by the natives guanacaste, its lofty 

 crown of small pinnate foliage (much like that of the honey locust), 

 supported on a tall, straight trunk covered with a smooth gray bark, 

 much like that of the beech. This was probably the tallest tree in the 

 forest, but to say how tall it grew would be mere guesswork; I only 

 know that a pair of macaws who were squabbling among the lower 

 branches of one, in plain view, looked no larger than doves, and that 

 a full charge from a shotgun merely sent them away, the forest re- 

 sounding with their discordant squawking as they disappeared. A 

 tree of unknown species standing some distance off the road attracted 

 attention from the enormous spread of its massive crown, which could 

 have been scarcely less than 200 feet across. Curious to know the 

 size of its trunk we cut a swath through the undergrowth of cannas 

 to its base. The buttresses connecting it with the ground were 

 so high that the tape could not be passed around the trunk, but the 

 distance, on the ground, between the extremities of opposite but- 

 tresses was 30 feet. 



While the forests of the lowlands are in some respects more beau- 

 tiful and certainly more varied, I believe that the maximum of 

 density, especially of the undergrowth, is attained by those of the 

 higher altitudes, or in the so-called cloud zone. These vary in char- 

 acter not only with altitude and slope exposure but also on differ- 

 ent mountains; but, being constantly saturated with moisture from 

 daily rains or heavy fogs all are perpetually dripping and peren- 

 nially green; and it is here that ferns (including tree ferns), mistle- 

 toes, bamboos, mosses, and lichens are most abundant. Further 

 detail concerning these rain forests will be reserved for descrip- 

 tions of special localities we were so fortunate as to visit. 



Notwithstanding the splendor of their development in the way of 

 luxuriant and infinitely varied undergrowth and decorative epiphytes, 

 parasitic plants, and vine drapery, the foliage of the trees themselves 

 in a tropical forest is singularly uniform in character. Of course the 

 palms are excepted, as are also the beautiful tree ferns, which in a 

 variety of species, now and then form a conspicuous feature in 



8 We measured one of these fig trees that was 30 feet in diameter, including the spaces 

 between the several stems. This particular tree included among its epiphytic decorations 

 a fine specimen of the leaf-cactus (Phyllocactus). (See pi. 1, fig. 2.) 



