1^8 T/ic IVes/ American Scientist. 



The specimens brouc^ht in last year were immature and I was 

 not assured of its identity until he brought in some fruited speci- 

 mens jrom his recent trip to the same locality. 



It proves to be Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh; the Brittle Bladder 

 Fern of English writers; It has a host of synonyms, scientific and 

 otherwise, and is widely distributed and known throughout the 

 world. 



The name of the genus is derived from two Greek words, mean- 

 ing respectively, bladder and wing (Pteris, from the Greek //<?r^?z, 

 a wing is used frequently as synonymous, with the name fern, from 

 its having been originally given by Linnaeus to the common 

 Bracken or Brake); the specific name is from the Latin and signi- 

 fies tender, delicate, or brittle, so that the common English 

 appellation is a literal translation of its technical name. 



The genus is peculiar in its distribution, having its headquarters 

 in the temperate zones of both hemispheres.. It is found through- 

 out Europe and Asia, everywhere from Iceland to Kamschatka, 

 from the Arctic regions to Madeira and Himalayas up to fifteen 

 thousand feet elevation; the mountains of Abyssinia and Fernando 

 Po, South Africa, Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand and Ha- 

 waiian Islands; Temperate North and South America, and in the 

 mountains of the intermediate tropical zone. 



Lorenzo G. Yates 



THE 'KITCHEN MIDDENS' OF SANTA HELENA 

 BAY, COSTA RiCA. 



On the west coast of Central America, in the beautiful bay of 

 Santa Helena, by the Americans called Elena Bay, there dwelt 

 once a tribe of people — the hunters and fishermen of the Neo- 

 lithic period. Not exposed to the rigid influence of a severe 

 climate, and not forced to defend themselves against wild beasts, 

 those primitive inhabitants of the seashores lived happily under 

 the sky of an absolute blue, and in the midst of a magnificent na- 

 ture. 



The great rubbish heaps on the shores of the Bay, and similar 

 to the "Kjokking moddings" of Denmark, are the sole remnants 

 of the ancient life of this perished people. These heaps are princi- 

 pally composed of dififerent shells as Solarium perspectivum, many 

 Cypraeae, Olivael, great tritons, oysters, and of numerous, broken 

 fragments of mother of pearl. Bones of peccari, stag and procyon 

 are also found, but those of fishes are too broken to be classified. 

 There is no vestige of cereals nor of plants. 



As for the kitchen debris themselves, they form heaps from'i to 

 3 yards in height by loo yards long, and 5 to 7 yards wide, and 

 are situated a very short distance from the shores of Santa Helena 

 Bay. and seldom raised more than 3 yards above the level of the 

 sea. The reader will thus see that their general appearance is 



