398 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



roof constructed very neatly of palm stems in two layers, the 

 inner parallel to the ridge pole, the outer at right angles 

 thereto. We rested a few minutes at the rancho, glad of the 

 shade for the sun was shining brightly and it was about one 

 o'clock. Thence we continued upward behind the rancho 

 to the forest, making our way back to the farmhouse by a 

 different and higher path through brief showers. 



Much of our way lay through charral where the tangle was 

 composed of escobilla, "quiebra-plato" {Crotalaria vitellina), 

 zorillo and an appalling number of thorny, spiny plants. Of 

 these the most conspicuous, because of its numbers and its 

 spines, was the "rabo de iguana" or lizard's tail {Mimosa 

 velloziana). With its pink balls of stamens, long stems 

 climbing over other plants or sending out canes like black- 

 berries, and its highly sensitive leaves of eight leaflets, this 

 plant is a pretty thing — until one touches it. But all the 

 stems are set with four rows of terrible thorns, strong, sharp, 

 recurved, and it is a serious matter to be caught by them, 

 not to mention having a branch sweep across one's face or 

 neck. Another is the "lagartillo" or little lizard, a bushy 

 herb with compound leaves, numerous pointed leaflets and 

 strong spines on the under sides of the midribs. The small 

 common creeping sensitive plant is also spiny but it does not 

 usually grow high enough to give much trouble. All these 

 were bound together by morning-glories and other creepers 

 and threaded by innumerable cow-paths less than a foot 

 wide and often so arched over and grown up that they were 

 extremely hard to follow. Here and there were fine groups 

 of guanacastes, wine palms and other taller palms, giving 

 patches of welcome shade. In the wine palm or "coyol," 

 Acrocomia vinifera, the dead leaves are retained, attached 

 to the tree but hanging downward, their withered brownish 

 color forming a gradual contrast to the more erect, green, 

 younger leaves. The bases of the old dead leaves remain on 



