332 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



purple plum-like fruit is excellent when made into various 

 "dulces." There were fewer epiphytic bromeliads on the 

 trees here than at Cartago, but the latter were often over- 

 grown with "caiia brava," a climbing cane with whorls of 

 short branches and long internodes, or with "matapalo." 

 The latter resembles our mistletoe in appearance and chokes 

 and kills its host unless removed by man. 



Often in the fences were tree yuccas or "itabos" {Y. 

 elephantipes), ten or more feet high, or the fence or hedge 

 might be formed of narrow-leaved terrestrial bromeliads 

 known as "pinuelas, " with spines along the margins of the 

 yard-long leaves, curved toward the leaf tip. Such a hedge, 

 formidable in itself, was sometimes supplemented by posts 

 and barbed wire. Mr. Clark told us that before barbed wire 

 came so extensively into use for fencing, fields were often 

 separated from each other by deep ditches and we saw some 

 of these, widened no doubt by rains and running water, 

 which were three to six feet deep and as wide at the top — - 

 a much more laborious and expensive method of marking 

 boundaries. 



South of the house, on the left bank of the Ciruelas River, 

 was a particularly beautiful pasture, "Flores' potrero," 

 which sloped steeply down to the rushing, foaming, rocky 

 river. It contained many fine trees, among them the guay- 

 abo we have figured and several magnificent isolated 

 specimens of the vainilla or candelillo. This is a large tree, 

 fifty to sixty feet high, with a spray recalling our New Eng- 

 land elms but with a flatter head, and in September it was 

 covered with pyramidal clusters of brilliant yellow flowers 

 borne on the tips of the branches. One of these great trees 

 covered with its yellow blooms was a dazzling spectacle. 

 The river seen from this potrero was very picturesque with 

 little rapids, overhanging trees and projecting stones. The 

 latter were often occupied by lizards and we sometimes 



