SU RUB RES AND OROTINA 399 



the trunk even down to the ground, giving the tree a scaly 

 appearance. Among the taller palms was one called "palma 

 real" — royal palm — which is probably the Attalea gompho- 

 cocca. It has no drooping leaves and its smooth trunk ap- 

 parently reaches to a greater height than does that of the 

 coyol. The other royal palm {Oreodoxa regia), said to be 

 originally from Trinidad and the northern coast of South 

 America but which has been cultivated in Costa Rica, is 

 distinguished by its trunk being swollen in the middle and 

 tapering thence both upward and downward. The "peji- 

 baye" palm {Gulielma utilis) also grew on the Bonnefil farm, 

 and is similar in shape to this Attalea, but is easily recog- 

 nized by the bands of long sharp spines around its trunk, 

 separated by narrower spineless bands. The coyol also has 

 spines on the attached leaf-bases, but these spines are not in 

 bands but scattered irregularly; they are three-sided and 

 live or more inches long. 



Another palm of this region was the "palma de som- 

 brero," a round-leaved species of Inodes; it is apparently 

 without erect stem so that the leaves and fruit seem to 

 spring directly from the ground. The better kinds of hats 

 were made of the fine fibers, the cheaper of the coarse ribs. 

 "Escobas" or brooms were also made of these ribs and one 

 of the stations on the Pacific Railroad was named Escobal 

 from the broom factory there. 



The Surubres River, and the Bonnefil farm particularly, 

 were favorite collecting grounds of the late Professor Paul 

 Biolley, a connection by marriage of the Bonnefil family. 

 He, however, visited it only in the dry or summer season. 

 Our visit was therefore planned for the wet season in order 

 to supplement his collections, and in spite of the drawbacks 

 of deep mud, regular rains and in addition a bad "temporal" 

 we found the results most interesting and valuable. If we 

 had had the morning sunshine usual in the rainy season, we 



