TURRIALBA AND PER ALT A 259 



of vegetables and plaintains planted. This, with the drier 

 weather prevailing, had so changed the character of the 

 spot that I could hardly recognize it. 



After retracing my way nearly to the laguna I followed a 

 road which in August I gave up on account of the deep mud. 

 Here I found a dragonfly which I had never seen alive be- 

 fore and which no one had previously taken in Costa Rica — 

 Gynacantha tibiata. It is two and three-quarters inches 

 long and quite striking when flying about because it was 

 bright green at the head including the large contiguous 

 eyes and bright orange at the tail. This road brought me to 

 a swift brook and I spent some time following it up and 

 down until the skies grew clouded and rain began about four 

 o'clock. The rain continued at intervals through the night. 

 During the preceding twelve or fourteen days it had not 

 rained at all, according to the record of Mr. Hess's rain 

 gauge in front of the station. Two days later I went up 

 the bed of this brook again and examined its banks. Many 

 of the stones which formed the latter were breaking up into 

 clay and one could see all the stages of the disintegration — 

 some were split up into irregular masses so that a kick easily 

 separated the whole, each fragment, however, retaining its 

 shape; others were evidently dissolving rapidly under the 

 action of rain. 



The vicinity of Peralta was rich in wild cane and in heli- 

 conias (wild plantains), Zingiberacese and Marantacese, the 

 shoots of these plants frequently reaching a height of fifteen 

 feet. Since in the latter orders the apparent stem is really 

 composed of tightly wrapped leaf-sheaths, this height means 

 that a single leaf and its stalk together may be fifteen feet 

 long. The species blooming in March were different from 

 those blossoming in August. The flower clusters of the 

 Heliconias were large and enclosed in bright red bracts, 

 the conspicuously colored portions of the inflorescences. 



