24 



PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY. 



[Part L 



with verdure, and sheltered from the sunbeams by the 

 cool shadows of the palm groves. 



Soil. — But the soil, notwithstanding this wonderful 

 display of spontaneous vegetation, is not responsive to 

 systematic cultivation, and is but imperfectly adapted 

 for maturino; a constant succession of seeds and cereal 

 productions.^ Hence arose the disappointment which 

 beset the earhest adventurers who opened plantations 

 of coffee in the hills, on discovering that after the first 

 rapid development of the plants, delicacy and languor 

 ensued, which were only to be corrected by returning to 

 the earth, in the form of manures, those elements with 

 which it had originally been but sparingly supphed, and 

 wliich were soon exhausted by the first experiments in 

 cultivation. 



Patenas. — The only spots hitherto found suitable for 

 planting coffee, are those covered by the ancient forests 

 of the mountain zone ; and one of the most remarkable 

 phenomena in the (Economic history of the island, is the 

 fact that the grass lands on the same hills, closely ad- 

 joining the forests and separated from them by no 

 visible hue save the growth of the trees, although they 

 seem to be identical in the nature of the soil, have 

 hitherto proved to be utterly insusceptible of reclama- 

 tion or culture by the coffee planter.^ These verdant 

 openings, to which tlie natives have given the name of 

 patenas, generally occur about the middle elevation of 

 the hills, the summits and the hollows being covered 

 with the customary growth of timber trees, which also 

 fringe the edges of the mountain streams that trickle 

 down these park-hke openings. The forest approaches 

 boldly to the very edge of a " patena," not disappearing 



^ See a paper in the Journal of 

 Agi'iculture, for March, 1857, Edin. : 

 on Trojncal Cultivation and its Limits, 

 by Dr. Macvicak. 



' 2 Smce the above was -written, 

 attempts have been made, chiefly by 

 natives, to plant coffee on patena land. 



The result is a conviction that the 

 cultivation is practicable, by the use 

 of manures from the beginning-; 

 •w^aereas forest land is capable, for 

 three or four years at least, of yield- 

 ing coffee -without any artificial en- 

 richment of the soil. 



