298 COCOA 



CHAP. 



with long, slim fruits, elongated and pointed towards 

 the end, and " bottle-necked " ; the surface is very 

 irregular, the furrows deep. The colour, when ripe, is 

 yellow or brownish-red ; the beans are large and almost 

 round. Sometimes this variety much resembles the 

 Venezuela Criollo, especially when the beans are white, 

 as sometimes happens. This variety, which is finer and 

 nobler than the other, has been tried in the other 

 provinces of Ecuador, but without success, the trees 

 dying from no apparent reason when seven or eight 

 years old. Preuss thinks that the cause must be a root 

 fungus, and, according to his description, the appear- 

 ance of the dead trees, with the brown dead leaves all 

 still hanging on the branches, is very characteristic. 



Seeds from good Venezuela varieties have been 

 tried with more success. The first plants were imported 

 in 1890 by Mr. M. E. Seminario, and at the present 

 time there is a general tendency to use Venezuela seeds. 



As regards shade, the old system of leaving a 

 certain number of trees as shade trees when clearing 

 the forest is still followed. Special kinds of trees 

 are preferred for this purpose, especially the " palo 

 prieto," Erytlirina velutina (or glauca ?), which grows 

 wild in Ecuador ; this is probably the same tree as is 

 used in Trinidad ("Bocare") and in Venezuela ("Bucare 

 pionio "). This tree is much appreciated in Ecuador, and 

 is considered the very best shade tree. For the same 

 purpose sometimes the " borotillo" (Erythrina umbrosa, 

 the " anauca " of Trinidad, and the " bucare anauca " of 

 Venezuela) is left, or various kinds of " guabo " (Inga), 

 the "mijagua" (Anacardium rhinocarpus), or native 

 rubber species e.g. the " hule" (Castilloa elastica), the 

 " palo de leche " (Sapium utile), the "tagua" (Phyte- 

 lephasmacrocarpa), and the "corosa" (Attalia Cohune), 

 etc. Some of these are decidedly not to be recom- 

 mended, as, for instance, the " Guabo machete," which 

 has very brittle wood and dies easily, while after death 

 the decaying roots are prejudicial to the roots of the 

 cocoa, infecting them with a fungus. 



