Show BURNING buhning LAKE AIDS FIELD OF BOTANY interesting specimens so secured by explorer washington A lake which bums buma every year pro provided TIded one of the strange collecting grounds la in costa rica from which dr paul C standley botanist of the national herbarium under tinder the direction of the smithsonian institution his hab lost just brought back a 0 collection of plants the paradoxical burning lake to Is arenal in Guana guanacaste caste province in the northwest corner of costa osta rica although sixteen miles by tour four miles in area and thirty f ft fa A deep in spots lake arenal Is in so he thickly grown over with a tall grass that it seems to be a level prairie the grass dries below the tips every year whereupon the costa ricans set fire to it thereby furnishing what Is probably the worlds world a solo sole example of a burning lake the rich collection brought back by doctor standley as the result of four months intensive work includes many any new species and one new genus this last la Is a tree closely related to the walnut and the hickory although the natives do not eat the nuts they do use the wood sin since it Is a fairly common tree in costa rica the fact act mat it has not been described before Is surprising two new potato trees doctor standley ulso also found two new kinds of the potato tree palo de papa this Is an important timber tree but it also produces a fruit the kernel of which Is very good to ent tasting like coconut the natives roast it like chestnuts and also grind it to make a meal doctor standley has already described two kinds of this same genus from mexico there the kernel Is used to furnish a black dye and the mexican name for the tree to Is Calato ln an aztec word meaning I 1 ng crow water referring no doubt to its use as a dye two thousand orchid specimens were included in doctor Stand leys haul ue do collected these for mr oakes ames of boston orchid special who financed the expedition costo costa rica produces more varl varlet etlen leH of orchids than any other section of this hemisphere 1000 different kinds having been described from that country reaches virgin field doctor standley made collections from two regions which have never before been explored by botanists the first brat of these was dota in southern costa rica a mountainous region which includes a tableland at an elevation of feet the only one of its kind in central america it Is a cold and windswept wind swept area characterized by grassland and low bushes animal life birds beasts and insects Is practically nonexistent there the other unexplored region was duana caste province a land of low elevation extensively grazed by cattle doctor Stand leys expedition formed a part of the plan of the smithsonian institution to prepare a descriptive account of the plants of all of central america which will be of great importance to commerce as an well as to science before the work can get properly under way extensive collections eions mu must st be made in honduras and nicaragua two which have scarcely been touched by botanists funds are needed tor for these explorations As a result of the two expeditions already made to rica doctor standley Is preparing a memoir on the plants of that country alone which will be published by the costa rican government |