84 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



One of the prettiest was the "Carboncillo" {Calliandra 

 grandiflora)^ a bush often twelve feet high with an extremely- 

 compound feathery leaf, a stem handsomely striped with 

 dark red, and large conspicuous flower clusters, of which the 

 long dark red filaments were the showiest part. Its flat, 

 dark red pods, borne on the outer ends of twigs, were also 

 pretty. We found it flowering from October to February. 

 This plant grows by choice on the edges of banks or cliffs 

 or stream ravines, often overhanging the water and never 

 far from it. 



The "Guitite" {Acnistus arborescens), a shrub or small 

 tree reaching fifteen feet in height, bloomed in May and June; 

 its small, exceedingly sweet-scented, white flowers were 

 thickly clustered along the stem and were highly attractive 

 to many kinds of insects and therefore to humming-birds. 

 The fruits were ripe in August, pretty little orange-colored 

 berries which many birds greedily devoured and which we 

 ourselves liked very much when we cautiously tasted them. 

 We found them deliciously sweet and juicy, reminding us of 

 currants or gooseberries. As the Guitite is a Solanaceous 

 plant we thought it wise not to eat too freely of the berries 

 since the Costa Ricans do not seem to use them as food. 



Melastomes were numerous both in species and individuals 

 and varied greatly in habit. An herbaceous species with 

 particularly handsome foliage, very common along fences 

 and hedgerows, was the "Terciopelo de Santa Maria" 

 {Miconia aeruginosa). Its leaves, often six inches long, were 

 a rich dark green but covered with a beautiful velvety pile 

 of long, soft, dark red hairs. Its flowers were inconspicuous 

 and we found them borne most freely from April to Septem- 

 ber, Another common Melastome, a woody species, ten to 

 fifteen feet high, growing in fields and potreros, was the 

 "Lengua de Vaca" (Conostegia la^iceolata). It had narrow, 

 stiff leaves but its pretty white flowers, which we saw in 



