TURRUCARES AND RIO GRANDE DE TARCOLES 373 



pods looking almost exactly like those of our own Catalpa, 

 which belongs to the same family, the Bignoniacese. The 

 flowers of the roble are nearly the same size and shape as 

 those of the cortess (see page 379) but pink, the inside of 

 the corolla tube being a pale yellow. The flower cluster I 

 was able to pull down had thirty-three blossoms and was 

 imperfect. 



Nearby was a tree with numerous clusters of small yellow 

 and orange flowers, which a few days later a man at Ceba- 

 dilla told us was the "caimito." Our Turrucares specimen, 

 however, proves to be the plant listed in Professor Pittier's 

 Plantas Usuales as the "nance" {Byrsonima crassifolia, 

 of the Malpighiaceae), while according to the same authority 

 the name "caimito" properly belongs to Chrysophyllum 

 cainito, the "star-apple," of the Sapotaceae. We met the 

 name "caimito" at Alajuela applied to what is probably 

 the same Byrsonima, for our notes made there from the liv- 

 ing plant agree with the Turrucares specimen — leaves en- 

 tire, elliptical, bluntly acuminate, margin entire, upper sur- 

 face highly glossy bright green, lower surface warm russet 

 brown and covered with silky hairs. The ribs are promi- 

 nent on the under side, each side rib connected with the side 

 rib next in front and next behind so that just within the 

 margin there is a series of scallops formed. The leaves 

 from Turrucares are up to four and one-half inches long and 

 two and three-eighth inches wide. 



On the other hand, we have leaves from a tree called 

 "nance" at the Bonnefil farm at Surubres which are evi- 

 dently Byrsonima, although possibly not B. crassifolia. 

 Thus it would seem that there is some local difference in 

 the use of the vernacular name "caimito," just as the name 

 "cortess" or "corteza" was used at Cebadilla for the Cour- 

 alea, although elsewhere more commonly applied to the 

 yellow-flowered Tecoma described on a later page. 



