136 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



strongly marked than any of the striae of the two preceding 

 species; the legs and the first antennal joint are reddish- 

 brown, the remainder of the antennae darker. 



The crater was almost as much of a flower garden now as 

 In September. Immediately about the tent there were few 

 plants on the crater floor except the yellowish grass-like 

 plant, which was ripened Into a sort of standing hay, some 

 moss and the gray-leaved Chionolcsna lavandulacea so com- 

 mon over the whole crater. Its pretty white flowers were 

 now abundant. On the slope of the crater wall behind 

 us were small trees and bushes of Spircea argentea, not now 

 In bloom, also many young and medium-sized bushes of 

 Arctostaphylos ledifolia, a plant with stiff leathery leaves 

 that forms the greater part of the woody vegetation on the 

 cinders both Inside and outside the crater and Is growing up 

 around the dead trees as If replacing them. The dead trees 

 are found on the outside of the cone In fine sand where there 

 Is much living vegetation and In coarse cinders where there 

 Is little; they are as common on the inside of the mother- 

 crater rim where they are half burled in young trees. They 

 are of uniform height (about fifteen feet) and shape, very 

 widespread for their height and with stiff gnarled spray. 

 It looks as If they had been killed all at once, possibly by 

 some gaseous eruption, and in the mist their bleached skele- 

 tons give a strange and ghostly aspect to the scene. Among 

 the trees and bushes on the Inner slope were many plants of 

 Senecio oerstedianus, composites with loose clusters of yellow 

 flowers and large coarse entire leaves whitish below. 



On parts of the crater floor more distant from our tent 

 there were a few Individuals of Castilleja irasuensis In bloom 

 and many young plants of this species were growing up. In 

 September they were flowering abundantly. Some scat- 

 tered Gnaphaliums were still in flower now also. Where 

 the yellowish grass did not hold sway there were In many 



