ORCHID C;OLLECTING — STANDLEY 367 



here in localities easily accessible, it seems a waste of time to go 

 elsewhere when looking for orchids. Costa Rica possesses many 

 attractive features that make botanical work agreeable, and the 

 expenditure of but little labor yields rich results. The country 

 is easy of access and transportation facilities are comparatively 

 adequate, although not so good as in Salvador; the climate in 

 general is delightful, in many regions temperate rather than tropi- 

 cal; and the people, as the writer can testify from personal ex- 

 perience, pleasant and hospitable to the highest degree. It is a 

 remarkable testimonial to the physical features, government, people, 

 and social conditions of Costa Rica, that whenever an inhabitant 

 of any other Central American state is asked what is the best part 

 of Central America, the answer is almost always if not universally 

 Costa Rica, even in the case of people who have never seen the 

 country. Such is the reputation which Costa Rica enjoys among 

 its neighbors who, after all, are the most competent judges. 



Costa Rica has approximately the area of the State of West 

 Virginia, and like that State is preeminently moimtainous. To 

 prove the botanical richness of Costa Rica, it is necessary only to 

 state that its known flora includes about 6,000 species of flowering 

 plants and ferns. This number will be greatly increased, for in 

 spite of the vast amount of collecting that has been done, over a 

 long period of years, there are whole mountain ranges of whose 

 vegetation practically nothing has been ascertained. When it is 

 remembered that in the United States and Canada there are only 

 about 16,000 species of plants, and that the United States has 130 

 times the area of Costa Rica, some idea of the richness of the 

 Costa Rican flora may be formed. 



There is probably no other part of all North America of equal 

 extent that can approach Costa Rica in wealth of species, and there 

 is certainly no other region of the continent where so many orchids 

 grow. Scarcely any orchids have been collected thus far in the 

 Cordillera of Talamanca, the most extensive mountain chain and the 

 one containing the loftiest peaks. This area is difficult of access 

 and has hardly been toliched by the botanist, although it is likely 

 to prove the most remunerative part of the Republic. 



The writer's experiences with orchids in Costa Rica were confined 

 to a few localities that it was possible to visit in two months. These 

 included typical regions of the Atlantic coastal plain, about La 

 Colombiana and Guapiles; numerous localities in the northern 

 Cordillera and in the highlands about San Jose, the capital; and a 

 single visit to the comparatively dry Pacific coast. At all these 

 places orchids were found in greater or less profusion. Some were 

 in- flower, but many more had neither flowers nor seed pods. Al- 

 though the visit was made during the dry winter months, it seems 



