326 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



the theory has become obsolete. At the back of the house 

 were several higuerones or wild fig-trees of considerable 

 size. The dwelling was separated hy a paved road from 

 the offices, in front of which stood a very fine guanacaste 

 tree {Enter olohium cyclocarpum) and some smaller trees. 

 Our first visit to El Brazil was in September, when we spent 

 a fortnight. This was in the winter or rainy season and all 

 these trees were in full leaf. The roads In every direction 

 were unbelievably deep in mud, the roadside banks were 

 draped with ferns, mosses and selaginellas and studded 

 with the exquisite blue flowers, two inches across, of the 

 little gesneriaceous plant Achimenes longiflora. The poro 

 and madera negra {Gliricida maculata) trees in the coffee 

 plantations — colTee being a crop that must always have 

 some shade — were also in full leaf and the coffee trees were 

 laden with bright green berries. The pastures and fields in 

 every direction were beautifully green, the rivers were rush- 

 ing torrents and the straight-sided ditches that ran through 

 every pasture to water the stock were full of water. 



Beyond the offices at El Brazil stood the beneficio, a huge 

 structure of corrugated iron, housing not only the coffee 

 machinery but also the sawmill and the dynamos for the 

 electric lights. Behind the house and the beneficio were 

 the great cement platforms or patios on which the coffee 

 was spread to dry. In all, there were several acres of these 

 patios. They were divided into smaller platforms by cement 

 troughs designed to wash the coffee thoroughly and to carry 

 water and coffee to any desired portion of the patio. The 

 machinery of the beneficio was run by power from the river. 

 The water was conducted by a cement-lined channel or in- 

 take and operated a turbine at the bottom of a twenty-foot 

 well. 



During our first visit, in September, there was of course 

 no coffee handled, but the sawmill was quite busy. The 



