22 



THE CUBA REVIEW. 



THE TREES OF EASTERN CUBA. 



Much Valuable Lumber. Prevalence of Hardwoods. Neglected Plantations. Cuba 

 Adapted to Many Northern Forms of Arborea. 



BY B. S. BOWDISH. 



Special Inspector of Wild Birds imported by dealers for the U. S. Uept. of Agriculture, Chief 



Clerk of the National Association of the Audubon bociety. 



Cuba, while it has lost by axe and 

 lire much of its primeval abundance of 

 timber, still retains much scattered lum- 

 ber of very considerable marketable 

 value, and more or less value commer- 

 cially. 



Among the imoortant trees are log- 

 wood (Haematoxylon campechianum), 

 valuable for its use in the manufacture 

 of dyes; West Indian cedar (Cedrela 

 odorata), used largely in the manufac- 

 ture of cigar boxes, and mahogany 

 (Swientenia mahogani). That this valu- 

 able wood was once abundant in Cuba 

 is shown by the inferior uses to which 

 it was put in the older structures, and 

 it is still found to some extent; lignum 

 vitae (Guaiacum officinale), used in the 

 manufacture of pulleys, blocks and other 

 objects where extreme hardness and 

 toughness is required, is fairly abundant 

 and is exported to a considerable ex- 

 tent. Some of the trees which shade 

 the streets of Cuban cities are Spanish 

 laurel, West Indian almond (Ficus in- 

 dica), beefwood (Casuarina cquiseti- 

 folia), resembling a conifer at a dis- 

 tance, but possessing hard, heavy wood 

 and introduced from Australia and the 

 East Indies, and sandbox trees (Hura 

 crepitans), deriving its name from the 

 fact that in early times the seed pods 

 were used as receptacles for sand for 

 blotting purposes. 



The grand ceiba or silk cotton trees 

 (Ceiba pentandra) are scattered all 

 over the island, but are not much more 

 abundant than the valuable hard woods. 

 The wood is soft and light. This tree 

 is common to most tropical countries 

 and is remarkable for its peculiar 

 growth, great buttresses at the base 

 with eliptic shaft and sparse branching. 



Among fruit trees in Cuba are the 

 orange, lemon, lime, mango, banana, 

 grape fruit, bread fruit, guava and coffee. 

 The first five are well known as to 

 their commercial value. The fruit of 

 the mango is perhaps more highly prized 

 by the natives, but the taste for it, once 

 acquired by the American, is apt to prove 

 strong. 



The Cuban pine (Pinus heterophylla), 

 found also on the Gulf coast of the 

 United States and in Central Atnerica, 

 gives the name to the Island of Pines 

 as well as to Pinar del Rio. 



A feature which indicates the really 

 tropical nature of the forests of the 



Siena Maesha region in the eastern part 

 of Cuba, in Santiago Province, is the 

 prevalence of hard woods. Conifers are 

 not well represented, though a pine oc- 

 curs which has been provisionally re- 

 ferred to as Pinus occidentalis. A pe- 

 culiar feature regarding this tree is that 

 while elsewhere it is a "white" pine, 

 with four or five needles growing from 

 a sheath, it is here found producing two 

 and three needles after the manner of 

 the "yellow" pine. 



One of the large growing trees is the 

 "almacigo" or gumbo-limbo (Bursera 

 simarubra), notable for the papery and 



Cuban Coffee in Blossom. 



flaky qualities of the red bark. Another 

 attaining a still larger growth is the 

 "jobo" or West Indian plum (Spondias 

 lutea). A tree of the basswood family, 

 the "Majagua de Cuba" (Carpodiptera 

 cubensis), is conspicuous because of 

 bunches of small rose-colored flowers 

 which it bears. 



Some of the hard woods occurring 

 here are granadillo, ebony, sabicu, ma- 

 jagua and mastic. About the shores the 

 black mangrove (Avicennia nitida), the 

 white mangrove (Laguncularia race- 



