GUJNACASTE—PUNTARENAS TO LIBERIA 421 



our mouths. The liquid was only faintly whitish, a little 

 cool and a little sweet. If these cocoanuts were average, 

 "milk" is an inappropriate name for this liquid and indeed 

 the name applied here is "agua de pipa" (water of the pipa). 

 This word pipa is used in Spain to denote a large vessel for 

 containing liquids, analogous to the "pipe" of old English 

 liquid measure. A certain Spaniard, newly arrived and 

 settled in Guanacaste, sent an order to Puntarenas for 

 "fifty pipas" without further explanation and was amazed 

 to receive in response fifty cocoanuts. 



Growing along the streets of Liberia, as well as on the 

 street near the estero in Puntarenas, were curious-looking 

 trees called "quelite," members of the Euphorbiaceae; they 

 mostly consisted of a few branches bearing leaves only at 

 the tips. The dull green leaves are deeply divided, the di- 

 visions sharply pointed; the trees rarely grow more than 

 fifteen feet high. In answer to our inquiries, Professor 

 Pittier wrote us in December, 1914: "'Quelite' is the general 

 name for the tender edible shoots of certain Cucurbitaceae, 

 Euphorbiaceae, etc. In the present case you refer evidently 

 to Jatropha aconitifolia, the real Costa Rican vernacular 

 name of which is chicasquil (quil-quelitl)" This plant was 

 collected near Puntarenas by Oersted, as his specimens were 

 cited by DeCandoUe in 1864. 



The streets of Liberia had a natural paving of volcanic rock 

 said to be pumitic in character, whose surface is black when 

 simply exposed to the weather, but which by wear becomes 

 white and breaks down to a white sand. White was conse- 

 quently the prevailing color of the streets, and as most of the 

 one-storied houses and shops were whitewashed, Liberia was 

 indeed a white city with a very strong glare in the middle of 

 the day. There was nothing particularly old-looking about 

 the town. However, Von Seebach was here in January, 

 1865, and Noriega states that it was erected into a "villa" 



