UREDINALES OF COSTA RICA BASED ON 

 COLLECTIONS BY E. W. D. HOLWAY 



J. C. Arthur 



A recent writer has said that " Costa Rica is an oasis of 

 progress in that long reach of country which extends from the 

 Rio Grande to the equator. It is the one Central American na- 

 tion which has lifted itself fully out of the anarchy of mercenary 

 revolutions and of semi-savage internal warfare and intrigue." 

 The country is largely mountainous, and fully eighty per cent, of 

 the inhabitants of the highlands are pure Caucasian, mainly of 

 Spanish ancestry. Schools are abundant. The natural scenery 

 of the country is surpassingly beautiful and the climate of the 

 highlands agreeable. 



The chief cities and best known mountain peaks lie along the 

 tenth meridian of north latitude, and the only line of railroad, ex- 

 cepting two or three short spurs, extends along this meridian 

 from Limon on the Atlantic side to Puntarenas on the Pacific 

 side, a distance of about one hundred and seventy miles, or 

 considerably less than from Detroit to Chicago. The two largest 

 cities, San Jose, the capital, and Cartago, lie about half way from 

 coast to coast, approximately on the eighty-fourth degree of west 

 longitude, or directly south of Bay City, Michigan, or less ac- 

 curately of Toledo, Ohio, and but twelve miles apart by rail, 

 being on either side the continental divide at an elevation above 

 the sea nearly the same as that of Denver, Colorado. The two 

 highest volcanoes, Irazu, 11,000 feet, and Poas, 8,000 feet, some- 

 times active, present no difficulties in their ascent, except the 

 tediousness of rough trails and the inconvenience of mists and fre- 

 quent rains. 



Owing to the primitive accommodations for travelers in small 

 towns and the almost entire absence of good highways, only the 

 immediate vicinity of the railway is likely to receive much atten- 

 tion from students of mycology and natural history in general for 



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