648 



PORTO RICO. 



PORTUGAL. 



thor has demonstrated the importance of its photo- 

 genic function in the Elateridm. The luminous 

 mucus collected from the bodies of dead fishes 

 treated with chloroform likewise gives this re- 

 action. 



Experiments with reference to the influence of 

 heat in the determination of sex, carried out by 

 M. Marin Malhard on the development of Mercu- 

 rialis annua at varying temperatures, have shown 

 that in this case heat favors the production of 

 female individuals. 



PORTO RICO, an island in the West Indies, 

 formerly a colony of Spain, ceded to the United 

 States by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in 

 November, 1898. The revenue in 1895 was $5,454,- 

 958, and expenditure $3,905,667. 



Area and Population. The island, 108 miles 

 long from east to west and 43 in extreme breadth, 

 has an area of 3,688 square miles. The population 

 is estimated at 900,000 to 1,000,000. In 1887 the 

 population was 814, 708, of whom 480,267 were white, 

 248,690 mulattoes, and 77,751 negroes. The foreign 

 population numbered 41,000, including Spaniards, 

 who numbered 35,000. San Juan, the capital, has 

 about 30,000 inhabitants. Ponce had 37,545 in 1887. 



Commerce and Production. Porto Rico is one 

 of the most productive of the Antilles, and its 

 climate is the most equable and salubrious. Nearly 

 the whole island is cultivated, the forests being 

 confined to the ridge of mountains running through 

 it and rising to the altitude of 3,600 feet. The 

 soil is exceedingly fertile up to the tops of the 

 mountains, and the climate is favorable to every 

 kind of tropical produce. The coca palm grows 

 along the shore, and about 3,000,000 cocoanuts are 

 shipped annually, chiefly to the United States. On 

 the steep hillsides bananas and plantains thrive 

 without attention, and 200,000,000 bananas are ex- 

 ported every year. The most important product is 

 coffee, the export of which constitutes nearly one 

 half of the export trade of the island, being valued 

 in 1897 at $8,789,788. The coffee ranks with the 

 best, and is all exported to Europe, bringing three 

 times the price of the Brazilian. The export of 

 sugar was $3,747,891 in value. This has not been 

 of late years a profitable crop except on a large 

 scale, with the improved appliances. Of tobacco 

 $646,556 worth was exported in 1897. The soil and 

 climate in Porto Rico appear to be as well adapted 

 to this crop as in the most favored localities of Cuba, 

 but the skill and care that are bestowed on it there 

 are wanting, and the product has nothing like the 

 same quality and reputation. The average export 

 of coffee is 2*5,000 tons ; of sugar 60,000 tons. Cotton 

 is planted to some extent. The cacao plant has 

 been more recently introduced and is cultivated 

 with success. Orange trees yield six or eight times 

 as much fruit as in Florida or California. Lemons, 

 limes, and shaddocks are equally prolific. Pine- 

 apples grow to great size and are of delicious 

 flavor. The guava shrub runs wild. Other fruits 

 are the grape, date, fig, sapodilla, citron, mango, 

 pomegranate, avocado, pear, plum, tamarind, star 

 apple, mamie apple, cashew, granadilla, bread fruit, 

 custard apple, etc. Indian corn is raised every- 

 where. Rice is also an important crop. The native 

 vegetables are yams, sweet potatoes, cassava, cucum- 

 bers, peas, beans, carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, 

 yucca, pumpkins, and arrowroot. In drugs and 

 dyestuffs and in cabinet woods the country is rich. 

 Besides the oak, locust, gum tree, palms of many 

 species, the mahogany, and logwood, the woods con- 

 tain the laurel, boxwood, walnut, the fragrant 

 cedar of which cigar boxes are made, lignum vitas, 

 tobacco treo, and the enormous ceiba, or silk-cotton 

 tree. Aloes, sarsaparilla, jalap, and the castor 

 bean are gathered wild. The principal minerals are 



lignite, carbonates and sulphides of copper, zinc*. 

 and the magnetic oxide of iron, which is found in 

 large quantities. Amber is also obtained. In for- 

 mer times gold was mined. Salt mines are abun- 

 dant along the shore. In the east are quarries of 

 gypsum. Cattle and hides are important exports. 

 The total value of exports is about $16,000,000 on 

 the average. The value in 1896 was $17,295,535, 

 and that of imports $18,945,793. The chief imports 

 are flour, provisions, wines, oils, textiles, machinery, 

 and lumber. Spain has furnished, besides wines 

 and oil, most of the flour and textiles and manu- 

 factures of all kinds, but textiles have come also 

 from England and Germany and from the United 

 States, and flour also from the United States, to- 

 gether with petroleum, hardware, machinery, glass- 

 ware, pork, lard, lumber and snooks and staves, 

 butter, codfish, and cheese. The value of the im- 

 ports from the United States in 1897 was $1,988,- 

 883, and of the exports to the United States $2.181.- 

 024. Spain has had till now 72 per cent, of the 

 whole trade. In 1895 there were 1,077 vessels, of 

 1,079,036 tons, entered at San Juan. 



Communications. There are 137 miles of rail- 

 roads, besides 170 miles under construction, and 

 470 miles of telegraph. Cables run to Jamaica and 

 St. Thomas. 



PORTUGAL, a monarchy in southwestern Eu- 

 rope. The throne is hereditary in the family 01' 

 Saxe-Coburg-Braganza. The reigning King is Car- 

 los I, born Sept. 28, 1863. The legislative power 

 is vested in the Cortes, consisting of a House of 

 Peers, containing 52 hereditary, 13 spiritual, and 90 

 life peers, and a House of Deputies, 120 in number, 

 elected for three years by the direct vote of all citi- 

 zens possessing an elementary education or an in- 

 come of 500 milreis. The Cabinet of Ministers 

 constituted on Feb. 7, 1897, was composed, in the 

 beginning of 1898, as follows : President of the 

 Council and Minister of the Interior, Jose Luciano 

 de Castro; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Henrique 

 de Barros Gomes ; Minister of Justice and Ecclesi- 

 astical Affairs, Francisco de Veiga BeirSo ; Minis- 

 ter of Finance, Frederico Ressano Garcia; Minis- 

 ter of War, Gen. Francisco Maria da Cunha: 

 Minister of Marine and the Colonies, Francisco 

 Felisberto Dias Costa; Minister of Public Works. 

 Commerce, and Industry, Augusto Jose da Cunlia. 



Area and Population. The area of Portugal 

 is 36,038 square miles, including the Azores ;md 

 Madeira, which have an area of 1,510 square miles. 

 Continental Portugal, at the census of 1890. had a 

 population of 4,660,095, and the islands 389,634; 

 total, 5,049,729. 



Finances. The budget estimate of revenue for 

 1898-'99 is 51,355,943 milreis from ordinary, and 

 1.450,000 milreis from extraordinary sources; total, 

 52,805,943 milreis. The estimate of expenditure is 

 51,518,761 milreis for ordinary, and 1,136.276 mil- 

 reis for extraordinary purposes; total, 52,655.0*7 

 milreis. 



The public debt of Portugal in 1853 was less than 

 30,000,000 milreis. In 1890 there was an internal 

 consolidated debt of 258,086.897 milreis, a foreign 

 debt amounting to 46,366,759 milreis. 104,172,464 

 milreis of redeemable loans, and 19.565,172 milreis 

 of floating liabilities; total, 428,191.292 milreis. In 

 1891 the Government was no lunger able to meet 

 its current obligations, and a law was then passed 

 reducing by 30 per cent, the rate of interest on 

 the internal debt payable in currency, which was 

 3 per cent, on the consols and 4-J- per cent, on 

 the amortizable debt. This was followed in 1893 by 

 a law reducing the interest on the external consoli- 

 dated debt payable in gold by 66f per cent., or from 

 3 per cent, to 1 per cent, per annum. The Council 

 of Foreign Bondholders in London found the 



