124 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ AUGUST 
cent avenue of St. Domingo mahogany trees. It illustrates the cofiee 
culture of Venezuela very well, which is in marked contrast to that ol 
Brazil by its employment of shade trees. ‘These cast a relatively deep 
shade over the whole plantation, and gave the impression of a thickly 
planted grove. In Brazil no shade trees are employed, and in Ceylon 
and Java they are planted very sparsely among the coffee trees. I 
seriously questioned the advisability of such heavy shading and was — 
informed simply that it was considered advantageous. Some of the 
best coffee in the world is grown in Venezuela, but very little of it 
reaches the American market because the latter demands principally — 
the cheaper Brazilian sorts. On the best Venezuelan estates the 
method of pulping the coffee berry before drying is in use, while the 
majority of Brazilian coffee growers still cling to the old method of 
drying the berry first and removing the dried pulp afterward. There 
are large Brazilian estates where this method: has been given up and the 
best machinery is in use. 
Nothing was seen in Caracas of the cocoa industry, although some 
of the finest cocoa in the world is grown along the Venezuelan st 
coast and in the interior about Maracaibo. 
In every city one of the most interesting places for a bota 
the market, and in Caracas it is characterized by an extraordinar 
of flowers. Tuberoses, white double violets, delicate purple Bi: 
Easter lilies, and curious bouquets made up of double columbines | 
marigolds and lilies surrounded with tissue-paper lace were most I 
favor at carnival time. Curious pear-shaped, thick-skinned shaddocks 
which are used for preserve making ; long, chocolate-brown, melon: 
like squashes, with orange-yellow flesh ; immense green water oo 
with squash-like meat, showing how careless the growers are about ! - 
interbreeding of their squashes and melons; bright yellow © of : 
mas” with orange-colored, mealy flesh, related to the curcumas . 
Peru, which are used in the manufacture of a favorite ice ; peaches: i. 
apples of inferior quality grown in the mountains of the inte 
together with the usual number of vegetables of quite inferior I 
ties compose the piles of produce on the well regulated stalls. is : 
part of the market is much more appetizing than the other ee 
where the most disgusting looking strings of salted meat are hung | 
sale. 
There is in Caracas a National Society of Agriculture 
to diffuse intelligence regarding the culture of agricultural pr 
nist is : 
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