COOK AND cook: THE MAHO OR MAHAGUA 155 



green color, and well adapted for making paddles and the frame- 

 work of boats and houses. Gill states that most of the firewood 

 used in the islands is furnished by this tree, and also claims for 

 it an important function in agriculture: 



Perhaps the greatest blessing conferred upon these islanders by this 

 tree is its power of renewing the fertility of the soil. Nothing exhausts 

 the soil so speedily as yams or cotton. In ten or twelve years the 

 soil is utterly impoverished. The native plan then is to allow it to be 

 overrun with lemon hibiscus bush. When the timber has become heavy 

 you may be sure the soil is perfectly renewed. The soil which once 

 was dry and hard is now light and extremely rich. 



Such a possibility of reclaiming abandoned lands might prove 

 of practical importance in many tropical countries, and would 

 doubtless facilitate the commercial cultivation of the maho as a 

 fiber or paper plant, which has been suggested. 



A WILD PLANT IN AMERICA 



As with the coconut palm and the sweet potato, the maho 

 figures more prominently among the Polynesians than among 

 the natives of tropical America, although the American origin 

 of the plant is even more clearly indicated. While the coconut 

 and the sweet potato are not known to exist in a truly wild state, 

 the maho is an abundant or even a dominant species in many 

 localities, all the way from Porto Rico and southern Florida to 

 the banks of the Guayaquil River, on the Pacific coast of South 

 America. Although used in the same ways as in the East Indies, 

 for bark cloth and cordage, and for kindling fire, as indicated by 

 Oviedo, Dampier, Sloane, Barrerre, and many later writers, 

 these uses were shared with many other plants, so that no 

 special prominence was attained by the maho. Sloane's History 

 of Jamaica states that the outer layers of the bark were used for 

 making ropes and the inner for clothing the slaves. 



A CULTIVATED PLANT IN THE OLD WORLD 



In the Pacific islands and in eastern Asia the status of the 

 maho was notably different from that in America. Lack of other 

 materials may have enhanced its importance. The making of 



