﻿NO. 7 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I926 



113 



many plants of South American types, nearly all of them new to 

 Central America. New Year's eve was spent in a little cabin on the 

 Cerro de las Vueltas, at an altitude of 10,000 feet. This mountain 

 and the near-by Cerro de la Muerte (Mountain of Death) are unique 

 in Central America, but are similar to many regions of great extent 

 existing in the Andes of northern South America. The top of the 

 Cerro de las Vueltas is an extensive tableland, partly forested but 

 consisting chiefly of the type of grassland known in South America 

 as paramo. In these paramos the vegetation consists principally of a 

 velvety sward of fine grass one to two inches high, in which are 



V . • -- » •' « . 



Fig. 121. — i lie volcano ot irazu, Losta Rica, in eruption. (Photograph by 



H. Wimmer.) 



scattered many small plants which are essentially alpine, such as 

 buttercups, violets, gentians, and other groups well represented in 

 the mountains of the United States. Barberry bushes are common 

 in some places, but the most remarkable plant is a giant dock 

 {Rumcx) 10 to 15 feet high. At this altitude the nights are very cold, 

 owing to the combination of rain, fog, and wind. Ice a quarter of an 

 inch thick fomis frequently. 



After leaving Santa Maria, a month was spent in company with 

 Prof. Juvenal Valerio at Tilaran, in the Province of Guanacaste near 

 the Nicaraguan frontier, a part of Costa Rica in which no plants 

 had been collected previously. Tilaran lies at the foot of the cordillera 

 bearing the same name. This range of mountains, one of the most 

 reduced sections of the great backbone of the American continent, 



