TROPICAL HORTICULTURE. 15 



thunder, and down streams the deluging rain. Such storms 

 soon cease, leaving bluish-black, motionless clouds in the sky 

 until night. Meantime all nature is refreshed ; but heaps of 

 flower-petals and fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Tow- 

 ards evening life revives again, and the ringing " uproar is 

 resumed from bush and tree. The following morning the sun 

 again rises in a cloudless sky ; and so the cycle is completed ; 

 spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in one tropical day. 

 The days are more or less like this throughout the year. A little 

 difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but generally 

 the dry season, which lasts from July to December, is varied 

 with showers, and the wet, from January to June, with sunny 

 days. It results from this, that the periodical phenomena of 

 l)lants and animals do not take place at about the same time in 

 all species, or in the individuals of any given species, as they do 

 in temperate countries." 



It is under conditions like these that the tropical cultivator has 

 to live and carry on his work. The enervating influence of the 

 climate upon a resident of the cooler zones is very marked, but 

 with proper precautions as to living according to the stern rules 

 ■of hygiene, life can be made very safe. 



[At this point Professor Goodale introduced on the screen many 

 stereopticon views of the dominant vegetation of the tropical 

 climates, both north and south of the equator. The description 

 of these views obviously cannot be given in this report. 



The lecturer then proceeded to the consideration of some of 

 the more important food plants of the tropics and sub-tropics, and 

 their cultivation.] 



Tropical cultivation of food plants is interesting from the eth- 

 nological standpoint. In warm climates where men can easily 

 procure enough food to sustain life there is little incentive to 

 exertion. If a small group of cocoanut palms and a fcAv banana 

 plants yield all the food one wants, why should any pains betaken, 

 for instance, to raise rice ? However, the natives of hot, moist 

 climates do attend to the cultivation of a few food plants, one of 

 the reasons being that they wish to vary the monotony of diet. 



Many tropical products reach the markets of the world di- 

 rectly from the wild plants, but many of these plants are com- 

 ing more and more under cultivation. The cultivation is, as can 

 easily be understood, largely under the stimulating influence of 



