SHADE TKEES AND CATCH CROPS. 49 



The jack-fruit is also mentioned by Raoul as one of the forest trees preserved in 

 tlu forest planting of coffee in the Coorg province of southern India. Here also it 

 is favored because not supposed to exert harmful competition with the coffee. This 

 suggests the possibility that there may be some undiscovered peculiarity in the 

 ecology of this tree, which should be carefully investigated. 



It is not known that the present species has been used for shade in America, but 

 Saenz, writing on the coffee industry of Colombia, recommends it for planting at 

 distances of 15 meters in localities having a temperature maximum of 21° C, or at 

 10 meters where the heat is greater. 



The present may, however, prove to be one of the cases where bad advice has 

 been industriously repeated. At least the following communication printed in the 

 Tropical Agriculturist for 1882 indicates that the favorable opinion is not uniformly 

 held: 



Meanwhile I submit, with all deference, my opinion of this tree, viz, that it does 

 far more harm than good on a coffee estate. Has any one known coffee to bear 

 heavily, or even fairly well, when under the influence of the artocarpaceous foliage? 

 I have not. This I will say, that where jaks are encouraged coffee will fail. 



Years ago I remember being struck with the luxuriant foliage of some coffee 

 (Arabian) which was growing beneath these trees, but crop there was none. The 

 constantly falling leaves, too, choke up drains and litter the ground for a consider- 

 able space around. 



Atti (Coorg, India). (SeeFicus glomerata.) 



Avilla (Porto Rico). (See Hura crepitans.) 



Avocado pear. (See Persea gratissima.) 



Baculo (Porto Rico). (See Agati grandiflora.) 



Balicbalic (Philippine Islands.) (See Pongamia glabra.) 



Banana. (See Musa.) 



Bastard cedar (Jamaica). (See Guazuma tomentosa.) 



Bean. (See Phaseohts.) 



Beggar- weed. (See Meibomia tortuosa.) 



Bili basuri (Coorg, India). (See Ficus tsiela.) 



Bilvara. (See Albizzia odoratissima.) 



Biti (Coorg, India). (See Dalbergia latifolia.) 



Bixa orellana. Anatto. 



Common names. — Achiote (Spanish America) ; Koucou (Carib). 

 This tree is planted in wind-breaks with Morus indica and a malvaceous tree called 

 waroe, as described by Lecomte for Java. The achiote or anatto is a small tree of 

 handsome appearance, with large, clean, cordate leaves and numerous pink flowers, 

 followed by burr-like pods, at first green, but changing to deep red and becoming 

 an inch in diameter. These contain the seeds, the arillus or fleshy covering of 

 which is bright orange in color and constitutes the anatto of commerce. On drying, 

 the arillus becomes dull orange. Quantities of dried seeds are to be found in the 

 Porto Eican markets for domestic use in soups, and in coloring rice and other dishes 

 yellow. In the English colonies the coloring matter is removed from the seeds 

 while fresh, and then dried and compacted into cakes, in which form it is exported 

 to the United States for manufacture into butter color. Supposedly for this purpose, 

 726,269 pounds were imported into the United States in 1899, valued at $34,827, but 

 recent analyses of butter colors show that they consist very largely of aniline dyes. 



11652— No. 25—01—4 



