CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 147 
fruit, Anacardium occidentale, to 1,000 m. elevation), and 
several species of guavas, all are Lowland fruits of some 
importance, though none except papayas are cultivated with 
_any pains, if at all. Only the first two get up into markets 
of the Altos. They are all native to the Americas. 
EXOTIC FRUIT TREES 
Exotic fruits include the mango (Mangtfera indica, im- 
portant fruit to 1,600 m., or 5,249 ft. elevation) and tamarind 
(Tamarindus indica), presumably from India; Polynesian 
breadfruit, two varieties, seldom eaten except when mixed 
with corn, in times of need, and apparently as much dis- 
liked here as in the West Indies plantations; and numerous 
citrus fruits. Among these are sweet and sour orange, sweet 
lime (lima, Citrus limetta, rather insipid and bitterish than 
sweet; pl. 27, f), lime (bears to 1,000 m. elevation, usually 
1,600 m. at Lake Atitlan), grapefruit, and cidra (citron, 
Citrus medica), grown mainly for confections. The first 
three of these (oranges, limas, and limes) are the only citrus 
fruits commonly appearing in the markets of Southwest 
Guatemala, their abundance being about in the order given; 
citron is seen occasionally in the plaza of Totonicapan. 
Grapefruit is rare in western Guatemala, though an excellent 
variety is produced in some abundance in the dry regions of 
eastern Guatemala, as around Zacapa. Lime is called limon: 
I have never seen a true lemon growing in Guatemala; they 
are unknown in most parts of Central America. Several 
Lake Atitlan towns are noted for citrus fruits, particularly 
Santa Cruz and its aldea, Tzununa; the fruits are said to be 
best in the dry season, November to March. Oranges (bear- 
ing to 1,800 m. or 5,905 ft.) and /imas (reaching about 
1,600 m., or 5,249 ft.) from here and from Santiago Atitlan 
are even sold in quantity in the Lowland markets, chiefly 
Chicacao. Nahuald is the main source of supply for San 
Antonio Suchitepequez, Santo Tomas la Union, and Mazate- 
nango, as well as all Highland markets between Quezalten- 
ango and Solola. 
There are several reasons for this preferred higher-eleva- 
tion producing area. First, all crops seem to have best 
quality near the cold margin (high elevation in the Tropics 
corresponding with high latitude on the globe), owing pos- 
sibly to slow maturing; second, a cooler climate more closely 
approximates the native, extratropical habitat of the citrus 
trees; third, diseases and pests are at a minimum where tem- 
peratures are lower. The fruitfly (Anastrepha ludens, pri- 
marily), which ravaged Lowland orange crops in some sec- 
tions, has been practically unknown on Lake Atitlan.” 
Factors that favor the western lake towns in citrus fruit 
production are fertile volcanic soils, fairly high in potassium, 
and apparent immunity from the fruitfly and other pests, as 
a result probably of mountain and water barriers, swept 
nightly by a strong northeast wind, with cooler temperatures 
than those prevailing in the Lowlands. 
MINOR FRUITS (PROBABLY INDIGENOUS) 
There are other Lowland fruit-producing plants, probably 
indigenous, but they are of little significance in the native 
22 Breadfruit is fairly important for fattening pigs at Santo Domingo 
Suchitepequez. 
243 Anuario Servicio Tecnico, Guatemala, 1932, p. 100, states that 
this fly infests fruits of many sorts in the Pacific Lowlands (to 5,000 
ft. or 1,524 m.) and also in the valley around Zacapa. 
enonomy, for example: The icaco (Chrysabalanus icaco), 
the fruit of which, according to the Guatemala Anuario Ser- 
vicio Tecnico for 1931 (pp. 67-68), are shipped to the capital 
from Mazatenango; the inferior Antillean avocado (Persea 
americana) of the Lowlands, no competitor of the native 
brittle-skinned Guatemala variety of the Highlands, arriving 
in quantity from San Pedro, San Juan, and Santiago Atitlan 
to Chicacao, San Antonio Suchitepequez, Mazatenango, and 
other coastal markets; jocote mico, jocote agosto, or jocote 
costenio (small, red, acid variety of Spondias purpurea or 
possibly S. lutea), and jobo or “hog-plum” (Spondias lutea), 
both producing inferior fruit (see table 8, p. 144). The Lake 
Atitlan villages are the chief jocote producers of Southwest 
Guatemala, though the Amatitlan region is also important 
(see pp. 97-126). 
MISCELLANEOUS USEFUL PLANTS 
HERBS 
There are great numbers of uncultivated herbs which have 
food or “medicinal” value. Particularly prominent among 
the former is a small legume, chipilin (Crotalaria longiro- 
strata), widely gathered and eaten as greens in many parts 
of Guatemala. It is sometimes cultivated, as at Santa Cata- 
rina Palopé, where there are small gardens of it. La Farge 
and Byers (1931, p. 74) mention it by its common name 
around Jacaltenango (Dept. of Huehuetenango), and Stand- 
ley (1920-26, p. 437; Standley and Calderén, 1925, p. 109) 
cites its importance as a food plant in both Guatemala and 
Salvador. Bledo (Amaranthus sp.), also sometimes culti- 
vated, is another important herb of which the leaves are 
eaten (p. 142). 
SWORDBEAN 
The origin of the swordbean (frijol haba, Canavalia 
ensiformis) has been subject to much disagreement, and the 
question has not yet been clarified. Standley and Calderon 
(1925, p. 108) called it native to the Old World Tropics. 
Bukasov (1930) reported C. ensiformis (as “haba criolla”’) 
in Venezuela, where it is known to occur wild. Ditmer’s 
interpretation of a gold object from a pre-historic Colombian 
burial (depicted by Uhle) as C. ensiformis is cited by 
Bukasov, with an illustration (fig. 87) of the pod. Archeo- 
logical evidences which I have seen in Peru seem to indi- 
cate that Canavalia ensiformis was the commonest bean of 
that region in pre-Columbian time, having appeared in pre- 
ceramic cultures and probably antedating the lima bean. 
The Russians found C. ensiformis only once “on the whole 
of our itinerary.” That was at Santa Isabel, Chiapas, where 
it was grown by a native for food. I found it in small quan- 
tities in a number of localities in Oaxaca (ayecote), Chiapas 
(“antirdbico”), and Guatemala, in the Pacific Coastal Low- 
lands, where it is called “frijol haba” because of its large 
size, like the haba. As the Chiapas name implies, the bean 
there, large and white, is thought to have curative proper- 
ties against rabies, but exhaustive tests conducted by Mrs. 
Ruth Chesbro, University of California Department of Bac- 
teriology, failed to substantiate these claims. The plant is 
grown on a small scale in Chiapas, Guatemala, and other 
parts of Central America, for the edible seed. 
