GUANACASTE—PUNTARENAS TO LIBERIA 413 



one bank or the other, we had a good opportunity to see the 

 mangrove trees which are abundant here. There were two 

 species. One, the "mangle" or red mangrove, from the color 

 to which the wood turns {Rhizophora mangle, family Rhizo- 

 phoraceae) has a trunk of uniform diameter from which the 

 roots extend at all heights and angles up to a distance of 

 twenty feet in the most extreme case that I noticed. In 

 the other species, the "palo de sal" or "culumate," the 

 black mangrove {Avicennia nitida, family Verbenaceae), 

 the trunk thickens markedly below and the much shorter 

 roots are given off from the thick base. Looking at the usu- 

 ally wooded river banks from the opposite side, one noticed 

 that the mangroves had foliage of a much paler green than 

 the other trees. These woods are not high, as cutting has 

 evidently been in progress for a long time and the growth 

 of very tall trees prevented. There was much tangled un- 

 dergrowth which, with the confusion of mangrove and other 

 roots along the shore, made a landing difficult except where 

 the vegetation had been cleared. Other noticeable plants 

 along the Tempisque were the poro-poro, cereus cactus 

 (which here and on the gulf comes down to within a few 

 feet of the water's edge) and an occasional guayabo. 



The birds visible were egrets {Herodias egretta), blue 

 herons (Florida ccBrulea ccerulea), gray herons {Cochlearius 

 zeledoni), sandpipers (species of Pisobia) on the occasional 

 beaches and, near the mouth, pelicans. Now and then the 

 cry of "Lagarto, lagarto!" was raised on the boat, usually by 

 some of the boys or young men. This indicated that a croc- 

 odile (perhaps Crocodilus americanus acutus) was visible 

 or at least the upper surface of the head of one as it floated 

 in the stream. We saw about half a dozen during our voy- 

 age up the river. 



After passing the mouth of the Rio de las Piedras, a nar- 

 rower stream, our party estimated the width of the Tempis- 



