610 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
Panama is especially rich in rare cabinet and dyewoods,* which 
with spices, vanilla, medicinal plants, rubber, fruits, ivory nuts, 
cocoanuts, coffee, hides, and tortoise shell form the principal articles 
of export. The native trees are mahogany, cottonwood, logwood, 
laurel, lignum-vite, ebony, cork, cedars (the yellow cedar is con- 
sidered indestructible), manzanillo, pepper, almond, and orange. 
The chief medicinal plants are ipecac, guaiacum, croton, sarsaparilla, 
and “maria balm.” There are many varieties of fruits, though the 
cultivation of them is still a small industry; chief among them are the 
banana, lime, plantain, pineapple, alligator-pear, mango, mama, 
guava, granada, papayo, granadillo, melon, pomarosa, sapote, and 
bread fruit. 
The mineral wealth of the Isthmus has been justly famed from 
the earliest days, though the statement in a recent consular report, 
“Te Panama posséde d’immense richesses minérales,’ is probably 
rather overstated. However, the gold which the Conquistadores 
- found everywhere in extensive use by the Indians for ornament and 
even articles of utility, proves that there is a good proportion of this 
valuable metal in the small area of the Isthmus. The mines already 
known are probably not yet exhausted, as their exploitation has been 
very spasmodic, and one may conclude also that in a country so little 
explored there are other and possibly richer mines than those already 
discovered. In fact, since the eighteenth century the gold mines 
have not been in operation to any extent, except the Cana mine 
(called “ Potosi” by Bancroft) in the Santo-Espiritu Mountains of 
Darien,’ which is now being worked by an English company at a 
good profit. ‘The expense incident to the operation of these mines 
and the lack of reliable labor have brought many attempts to ulti- 
mate failure, except in the case of the Cana mine, already mentioned, 
and the new enterprises just starting in western Panama. The gold 
of the Isthmus is of an unusually fine quality with a natural alloy 
of copper. Besides gold and copper, some silver, iron, coal, salt, 
manganese, cinnabar, and oil comprise the mineral resources. The 
famous pearl beds of the “Archipielago des Las Perlas” no longer 
produce any quantity of marketable pearls, though the industry is 
not entirely dead, and the trade in mother-of-pearl is extensive. 
Much tortoise shell is exported; from the port of Colon to that of 
@The dyewoods and plants are “ribes glandulosum, weinmannia giabra, 
pterocarpus draco, opuntea tuna, ruellia tuberosa, morus nigra, persea gralis- 
sima, bixa orrellano, indigo-fero tintorio, and the muquera, which produces a 
beautiful red without preparation (4). 
’This mine was very productive, but was closed for many years by royal 
decree in 1685, owing to raids of the Indians and buccaneers. Its greatest out- 
put was 100,000 castellanos a year (5). The gold is brought on muleback to 
Real and thence taken in small ships to Panama, 
