﻿NO. 7 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1 926 



117 



In Costa Rica about 11,500 numbers of plants were collected, 

 mostly phanerogams and ferns. As upon an earlier visit, much 

 attention was directed to the collection of orchids, of which there 

 were obtained 2,000 numbers, representing many species. In orchids 

 no other part of the North American continent can compare with 

 Costa Rica, and it is probably not excelled by any area of equal size 

 in South America. About 1,000 species are known from Costa 

 Rica. They range from the beautiful Cattleyas, with flowers e(|ual to 



Fig. 125. — Cerro de la Carpintera, near Tres Rios, central Costa Rica. This 

 mountain, now nearly denuded of its forest, is a classic locality for plants. 

 Black howler monkejs still live in the patches of forest about the summit. 

 (Photograph by M. Gomez Miralles.) 



those of any hothouse orchid, to diminutive plants less than an inch 

 high, whose blossoms are so minute that they must be studied under 

 a strong lens. 



Although Costa Rica is a small country, about as large as West 

 Virginia, its flora is so extraordinarily varied that it is still imperfectly 

 known, in spite of the fact that this has been the favorite collecting 

 ground of a large number of botanists. It may seem strange that so 

 small a country should not have been exhausted long ago, but to 

 one familiar with Costa Rican geography the explanation is simple. 

 Some of the provinces are so difficult of access that they are prac- 

 tically unknown even to the national government. The Republic 



