CHAPTER V. 



Cacao plant. T. angustifolia. Shade necessary. Socunusco or Tabasco 

 cacao. Castilloa or Central American rubber. Description of tree : 

 leaves, flowers, and fruit. How to collect seeds. How to raise plants. 

 How to tap trees. How to prepare the rubber. Use of juice of 

 the moon-plant. Use of alum. Preparation of rubber ready for 

 shipment. Yield of trees. Value. Extended use of the Castilloa 

 tree. Shade trees in general. Superiority of Castilloa over other 

 shade trees. Ceara rubber-tree. Soil, situation, and districts for the 

 Castilloa. Distance apart. Pruning. Returns of cultivated trees. 

 Vanilla plant. Found wild and in bearing. Value. Directions for 

 cultivation. How to fertilise flowers. How to cure beans. Fibre 

 plants. Pita and henequin. How to establish a henequin plantation. 

 Eeturn at the end of five or six years. Preparation of fibre. Value 

 of the industry in Yucatan. Cockspur-tree. Tococa. Habits of ants. 

 Provision-tree. Indigo. Arnatto. Karamani, or hog-gum. Oil of 

 Ben. Balsam of Tolu. Balsam of Copaiba. Guaco. Corkwood. 

 Manchineel. 



ALTHOUGH the fact does not appear to be generally known, 

 one, if not more, species of the cacao plant, producing the cacao 

 nibs of commerce, is a native of British Honduras. In the 

 forests along the banks of the Rio Grande and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Toledo Settlement, and again in the forests on 

 the western frontier, near the upper portions of the Belize 

 River, cacao-trees are found wild in the woods, with their 

 stems covered with flowers, and often loaded with fruit. The 

 trees which came under my notice in the south were probably 

 forms of the same species (Theobroma cacao), which yield the 

 best kinds of Trinidad cacao; but in other instances the 

 characters approached more nearly to T. angustifolia, which is 

 supposed to be a distinct species, and under cultivation in 



