Inventory 70, Seeds and Plants Imported. 



Plate I. 



The Pejibaye Palm, the Source of a Staple Food in Costa Rica. 



(GUILIELMA UTILIS OERST., S. P. I. NO. 54776.) 



The date palm, on whose fruit with the addition of a few olher foodstuffs thousands of Arabs 

 subsist for a large portion of the year, finds a tropical Amirican counterpart in the pejibaye, 

 which since pre-Columbian days has yielded the principal food of the Indians inhabiting southern 

 Costa Rica. Though its cvltivation is now restricted to the region between Lake Nicaragua and 

 Ecuador, it can undoubtedly be grown in many portions of the tropical world. (Photographed 

 by Wilson Popenoe, San Jose, Costa Rica, June 17. 1920; P17936FS.) 



