2IO J YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



on its left bank there issued from the hillside a spring of clear 

 water where we often refreshed ourselves, in the shade of the 

 roadside trees and bushes. The descent ended at a ford 

 through the brown waters of the Naranjo where that 

 stream reached the flood plain of the Reventazon. The 

 road then for rather less than half a mile gradually ap- 

 proached the latter river and crossed it by a good iron 

 bridge. 



The Reventazon here was a stream some seventy-five feet 

 wide, rather smooth just at the bridge but full of boulders and 

 foaming rapids above and below it, and with a very swift cur- 

 rent. It is subject to tremendous floods, as it drains a large 

 mountain territory. Its elevation at this point was 2500 

 feet by our aneroid. Above the bridge was a well-wooded 

 island a hundred yards or so in length. The greater part of 

 the river flowed on the south side of this island so that the 

 water in the northern arm was shallower and less turbulent. 

 The river banks where they were not steep cliffs or slides were 

 boulder-strewn, and in the crevices grew small palms and 

 maidenhair ferns, while stretching above them were large 

 begonias resembling the "beefsteak" variety but having 

 stems four to five feet high. 



A few yards before reaching the iron bridge there was, 

 on the left side of the road, a waterfall about thirty feet high. 

 Near it a trail led up the steep bank to the stream above the 

 fall. The woods here were very thick and this trail extremely 

 narrow, steep and slippery. In these dark shady nooks we 

 took Palcsmnema, Cora and other interesting dragonflies, 

 and at the waterfall itself Thaumatoneura. 



After crossing the Reventazon the road led into a thick 

 plantation of "pejibaye" palms with long feathery leaves 

 and bands of sharp black spines on the trunk. In July, 

 plantains, maize, tobacco, pineapples and yuca were grow- 

 ing with the palms. Yuca {Manihot palmata) resembles 



