THE PLANT WOELD 163 



As tlie American traveler lands at Havana and takes his first walk 

 on the Prado or Parque Central, he is confronted hj trees entirely dis- 

 tinct from anything he is familiar with. Doubtless he should expect a 

 surprise, but it is difficult not to wonder at such a radical change. The 

 two most common shade trees on the Prado are introduced figs, Ficus 

 reUgiosa, the sacred tree of Hindostan, here called laurel de la India, 

 its small, oval, shortly acuminate leaves having some resemblance to 

 those of the classic laurel, and Ficus Indlca or Alamo, mtli smooth, 

 shining, long-acuminate leaves, looking very much like those of the 

 Mexican alamo {Pojmlus moyiilifeiri), the cottonwood of the southwest- 

 ern States. The laurel fig is a beautiful, (juick growing, round, spread- 

 ing tree with dark green foliage, forming a dense shade all the j^ear 

 round. Its many aerial branchlets seldom reach the ground so as to 

 be a nuisance. Unfortunately, like all figs, it is short-lived, and begins 

 to lose its top foliage and become partly bald before it is thirty years 

 old. Its roots creep along the surface to enormous distances, and 

 enable it to grow and thrive on rocky ground with only a few inches of 

 soil. This wandering habit of the superficial roots, sometimes pene- 

 trating into buildings or into neighbors' yards, is very objectionable. 

 The innumerable small pea-like fruit littering the ground is another 

 objection. The reddish wood is tolerably hard and makes good fuel, 

 but is of little value in carpentry. The Alamo fig is also a fine tree, of 

 easy and rapid growth, but its lustrous foliage is not so dense and its 

 shade not so dark. 



The rubber tree (Ficus elastica), is often planted in gardens and 

 parks; it is quite pretty when young, but loses its beauty as it grows to 

 a medium sized tree with unsymmetrical limbs and scant foliage. 



Of native species of Ficus there are ten or more, all with neat, lus- 

 trous foliage, some, like F. suffocans, very common and conspicuous 

 parasites in forests, their long aerial roots growing into stems which, 

 uniting, form in time a huge, misshapen hollow trunk enclosing the 

 host tree in a tight embrace and destroying it. 



One of the handsomest trees in Cuba, plentiful everywhere in 

 streets, parks and gardens, is Poinciana regia, the flamboyant of the 

 French and Spaniards, and fire tree of the English, native of Madagas- 

 car, thence carried to Martinique and later to all the other Antilles. 

 Its dense, finely divided, fern-like foliage, as it gracefully undulates 

 under the breeze, disj)laying various, harmoniouslj^ blended shades of 

 green, or as seen sharply projected against the luminous blue of the 

 Cuban sky, baffles description. During the summer it becomes a burn- 

 ing mass of fiery red blossoms, truly a "flamboyant" object. It has 

 one serious objection; its leaves are deciduous, and in the winter the 

 bare straggling limbs are redeemed from vulgarity only by the long 



