1889.] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



247 



charge of the matter. The specimens, which have been 

 carefully prepared in sections so as to show the bark and the 

 interior fiber of the wood, together with many thin squares 

 polished and framed, number in all 233 different species. To 

 these Dr. Hassler has added specimens of charcoal made of 

 different kinds of wood, 93 specimens of trees, shrubs and 

 herbs which are used for medicinal purposes, 38 that yield 

 textile fabrics, 8 of them furnishing vegetable silk, and 25 

 from which excellent materials for coloring and dyeing are 

 obtained. Few countries of the size of Paraguay, which 

 scarcely equals the state of Colorado 1 in area, could make such 

 an exhibition. Brazil is probably the only South American 

 country which could surpass this little territory in this re- 

 spect. 



In table supplies Paraguay is hardly surpassed by any 

 nation on the globe. To say nothing of the ordinary gar- 

 den vegetables, nearly all of which are easily cultivated 

 in her fertile soil, she has of fruits the orange, the lemon and 

 the citron, all growing here to perfection and without cul- 

 ture ; the fig, banana, pine-apple, peach, grape, guava, pa- 

 paw, water-melon and musk-melon, both of fine quality and 

 raised with scarcely any care ; the cocoa-nut (that is, the 

 small cocoa-nut mentioned above, which is very edible), pea- 

 nut, sterculia-nut (similar to cocoa), and many other wild 

 fruits for which there are no popular English names. Of 

 other valuable productions she furnishes the far-famed 

 Yerba-mate (Ilex Paraguayensis), a tea drank by eighteen 

 million people in South America, the best and by far the 

 greater part of which grows wild in her eastern Cordilleras ; 

 coffee, as good as that of Brazil ; cotton, equal to any up- 

 land cotton of the United States : tobacco, which is raised 

 in large quantities ; mandioca or cassava, regarded with 

 good reason as an excellent substitute for wheat flour ; maize 

 or yellow corn, grown abundantly by the farmers ; sugar- 

 cane, of the best quality ; sorghum, Irish and sweet potatoes 

 and yams, rice, the egg-plant, and many fine pasturage 

 grasses. We must take into the account, too, that this coun- 

 try is agriculturally vet in its infancy. The farming is very 

 limited, and at best of the poorest sort. The conditions are 

 all favorable for raising nearly everything which can be 

 grown in a semi-tropical climate, and I have no doubt that 

 in time scores of other fruits and veget ables will be success- 



, Paraguay has an area of about 100,000 square miles, while Colorado has over 104,000 

 square miles of territory. 



