SOME LEADING NUT TREES. 311 



It is probable that the systematic owners of plantations 

 from the United States now settling in Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 and the Philippines will soon learn to propagate from the 

 best trees of the best varieties, as even now they are propa- 

 gated from cuttings of the head of young trees, and even 

 from those of old trees, where broken down by the tropical 

 storms of south Florida and its keys. 



298. Brazil-nut. This tropical nut is also included, as 

 it thrives well in Porto Rico, the Philippines, and Cuba. 

 It is not hardy anywhere in the United States, and the 

 commercial supply comes mainly from Brazil and other 

 parts of tropical South America, and is grown on native 

 wild trees. It is one of the largest trees of the tropical 

 forests. The nuts from eighteen to twenty-five in num- 

 ber are enclosed in a hard shell. The great balls of fruit 

 are five to eight inches in diameter, and fall heavily to the 

 earth when the nuts are ripe. So far as known to the 

 writer, it has never been cultivated, yet it is one of the 

 leading commercial nuts of the world, under the name of 

 cream-nut, nigger-toe, or Brazil-nut. 



Although in its native tropical forests it reaches a height 

 of one hundred and thirty feet, the isolated trees grown 

 from the nut by amateurs in Cuba spread out, making 

 handsome round-topped trees that bear bountiful crops 

 quite as young as do our nut trees of the North. If the 

 great supply of forest nuts from Brazil is cut short by 

 forest clearing, or in other way, the cultivation of this 

 valuable nut in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines may 

 become profitable. This is the more probable, as the use 

 of its oil is on the increase. It has long been the oil used 

 by watch-makers and repairers, and for all delicate 

 machinery, and its use by artists and in high-grade cookery 

 is rapidly increasing. The latest publications do not speak 

 of improved varieties of cream- or Brazil-nut, but in 1901, 



