372 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



sists of epiphytes, loose cushions and pendants of mosses and hepa- 

 tics, gray lichens, and masses of herbs and shrubs of the most 

 heterogeneous family relationship. Some of the invading shrubs 

 are nearly as large as the host itself. Many are noteworthy for 

 their gorgeous flowers, and if this were a tropical forest it really 

 would satisfy popular pictures of the Tropics. Usually yellow 

 flowers predominate in any locality, but such is not the case here. 

 Although yellows are not absent, they are not so conspicuous, at 

 least in winter, as the reds supplied by innumerable plants of the 

 heath family. These furnish such an abundance of red as one 

 expects never to find in nature. Some of the lobelias are equally 

 showy, and there are also other plants with red blossoms. Blues 

 are as scarce as elsewhere, but there are many plants with attractive 

 white flowers. 



On all these moss-covered trees there is an abundant supply of 

 ferns and, last but not least, of orchids. The profusion of orchids 

 is truly bewildering. Occas'ionally there is one with showy flowers, 

 but more often they are small plants, often only 1 or 2 inches 

 high, with miniature blossoms. Every branch bears a copious 

 supply of them, and the variety is infinite. If one spends the whole 

 day hunting them, at evening one will still be finding new forms. 

 Some species are plentiful and quickly recognized, but others are 

 so rare that one may search all day without finding a second plant. 

 When one realizes that in Costa Rica there are many hundreds of 

 square miles of equally rich orchid territory, it will be under- 

 stood why it is that every new collector finds many novelties. 



Well within the forest, which is always dripping wet, there are 

 many orchids and other plants upon the trees. The individual 

 plants are so entangled that there is difficulty in separating them. 

 Their roots are bedded in masses of decaying vegetable matter, and 

 when a clump is pulled down from above, a shower of debris falls 

 into one's eyes. Some terrestrial orchids occur, but the species are 

 unimportant in comparison with the epiphytic ones. 



All around La Palma there are many other favorable localities, 

 several of which were visited by the writer. At La Hondura, over 

 the pass from San Jose and on the Atlantic slope, the flora is almost 

 unbelievably varied and rich, and years of collecting will be in- 

 sufficient to exhaust it. The elevation at La Hondura is less than 

 at La Palma, but the precipitation is as great, and there can be no 

 better place in which to look for orchids. 



It is interesting to see how remarkably the plants change from 

 one locality to another, even at a distance of only a few miles. 

 Plants that are abundant in one place may not be found at all at a 

 near-by locality, and this is frequently the case even with trees and 

 other large and important species. With orchids elevation seems to 



