BROKEN-KIDGE. 63 



scarce, which has been exported from time to time in small 

 quantities. It has much of the appearance in its bold markings 

 to the celebrated calamander wood of Ceylon, and I doubt not it 

 would make furniture of great beauty and value. 



Along the banks of rivers one of the commonest objects is the 

 locust-tree (Hymencea courbaril), said to yield a tough, close- 

 grained timber. A resin resembling gum-anime exudes from 

 the trunk, and is found in lumps at the bases of old trees. The 

 cashaw (Prosopis juli flora) also yields a hard durable wood, as 

 well as a gum resembling gum-arabic. The pods in Jamaica 

 are used as food for cattle, but they are likely to be very 

 injurious if eaten when partially germinated, that is, after rains. 



In the Savannah, near Orange Walk {Old Eiver), there are 

 two or three fine trees of the edible candle-tree (Parmentiera 

 edulis). The fruit, like long-ribbed, soft calabashes, is eaten in 

 some parts of Central America, under the name of Quauhxilotl, 

 or Cuajilote:; but the chief use of the plant is evidently to supply 

 food for cattle, horses, and pigs, which greedily devour the fruit 

 as soon as it falls. Other trees supplying food for cattle, &c., 

 are the ramoon (Tvophis americana) and the bread-nut (Brosi- 

 mum alicastrum), both of which keep horses, especially, in 

 excellent condition. 



In addition to pine-ridge and cohune-ridge, there is some- 

 times known a district possessing a vegetation of its own, to 

 which the colonists apply the term "broken-ridge." This 

 broken-ridge country generally appears to lie on the outside, 

 and generally parallel to and continuous with the cohune- 

 ridge ; and, in fact, is an intermediate belt of vegetation coming 

 between it and the pine-ridge country. The trees in this 

 belt are smaller than in the cohune-ridge ; the undergrowth is 

 denser and more scrubby in character; and, generally, the 

 conditions indicate a poorer and less luxuriant phase of plant 



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