36 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



while in the kitchen patio there was even a hot water tap — 

 the rarest of luxuries. The main patio, of which the dining- 

 room formed one side, contained some flower beds, a large 

 "Peruvian pine" or Araucaria and was further adorned 

 with two big macaws, the common red and blue and a some- 

 what rarer brilliant red one, and a tame but chained white- 

 faced monkey. The antics of these three creatures provided 

 endless amusement and they had frequent little differences 

 — really a "monkey and a parrot of a time." 



The food in Cartago was extraordinarily good. Fowls 

 and pigs were plentiful and the cattle raised on Irazu fur- 

 nished excellent beef. Sheep are not bred in Costa Rica 

 so that mutton is unknown. The vegetable gardens pro- 

 duced the greatest variety of vegetables throughout the 

 year and we enjoyed fresh peas, string beans, young carrots, 

 young beets, cauliflowers, onions, sweet and white potatoes 

 and green corn nearly every month of the year, while there 

 were only a few months in which we did not have fresh 

 asparagus and strawberries. The latter in particular were 

 of exceptionally large size and delicious flavor. These in- 

 troduced plants only grow to such luxuriousness and per- 

 fection in the higher parts of the country. There were also, 

 of course, the native fruits and vegetables, especially bana- 

 nas, plantains, frijoles, or black beans, the tips of the young 

 fronds of a tree-fern, called "rabo de mico" (monkey's tail) 

 because of their curved ends, the "manihot" or "yuca" 

 {Manihot utilissima and palmata) and above all "chayotes." 

 The chayote {Sechimn edule) is a cucurbit with a globular 

 or ovoid fruit having but one large seed. It is a most useful 

 plant. The young leaves are eaten either cooked like spinach 

 or to enrich soups. The young fruits, an inch or so long, 

 are stewed or baked in milk. When ripe the fruits are six 

 or seven inches long, with a firm prickly skin and are then 

 baked whole, or halved and stuffed before baking, or fried 



