130 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Sepr.-Ocr., 1920. 
Anthuriums, and many other genera. A wealth of species is sometimes 
found on precipitous slopes, exposed to the prevailing trade winds. The 
majority of plants in such situations are very stunted in growth, and are 
those that, normally epiphytic, have just succeeded in attaining a precarious 
root-hold. These are principally Maxillariz and Pleurothallide, an 
occasional Oncidium, and frequently Sobralias. Many Bromeliacee abound 
in such stations. 
_ The low hill region to the south of Cartago has a large and varied 
Orchidaceous flora. At elevations of 5,000 to 6,000 feet a great feature is the 
ubiquitous and very bright Ericad, Satyria Warscewiczii. This also is 
indifferently epiphytic or terrestrial, and its masses of white and scarlet 
flowers are followed by waxy mauve fruits, edible, as Asa Gray said of other 
similar fruits, for boys and pigs. In this district large specimen plants of 
Maxillarias and many of the Pleurothallis group may sometimes be found 
as terrestrials. This also is the home of the attractive little Monotropa 
coccinea. On the tree trunks here, some seven or eight feet from the ground 
and upwards, are found little groups of Masdevallia picturata, several species 
of Lepanthes and Stelis, an occasional pendant Epidendrum falcatum, which 
is more abundant to the north of Cartago or in the valley of the Reventazon, 
where on the branches of Pithecolobium cognatum it may be seen in its 
finest development. There are plants of it at Las Concavas nine feet in 
length. A strong grower here is Epidendrum Brassavolz, which emits a very 
powerful and repugnant aroma after seven in the evening, as doesan Oncidium 
from the north of Cartago. A plant of this latter is growing well at Kew, which 
on flowering should be visited at that hour. A fat black wingless cockroach 
abounds in Costa Rica which, if carefully crushed by a good stout boot, 
competes strongly with these two plants; it is hard to say which of them 
has the most evilsmell. This same insect lies in wait for the choicest buds 
in one’s collection, and often destroys in one night the fruit of a year’s 
expectation, though he, in his turn, may be frustrated by a slug or a 
ravenous locust. : 
The tree-lined river banks are great distributors of plants from the upper 
to the lower levels. Thus, on the Reventazon I have found Odontoglossum 
pulchellum abundantly, and O. Schlieperianum occasionally, at 3,200 ft- 
This is progressive against the normal wind direction, their area of greatest 
abundance being north and north-west of Cartago at from 5,000 to 6,600 feet — 
Two forms of O. pulchellum are common at this altitude, but only that 
with the slender bulbs survives below 3,500 feet. Cattleya Dowiana has a 
deep zonal range. A great surprise was its occurrence at Las Concavas in 
May of this year, at over 4,200 feet elevation. In April, 1915, I found it on the 
Rio Estella, within ten miles of the sea. Its true zone is from 600 to 2,500 
feet, and in that it is mainly restricted to the trunks of Cordia Gerascanthus 
