SHADE TREES AND CATCH CROPS. 69 



pan, in the State of Michoacan, Mexico. These may also be collected and allowed 

 to decompose in trenches or piles, and with proper handling are said to yield a 

 manure rich in nitrogen, potash, lime, and phosphoric acid, and thus particularly 

 valuable for coffee. 



Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco. 



Tobacco is sometimes grown in young coffee plantations in Mexico. 



No-eye pea. (See Cajanus indicus.) 

 Noge (Coorg. India). (See Cedrela toona.) 

 Orange. (See Citrus cmrantmm.) 



Oryza sativa. Rice. 



A Queensland experimenter claims good results from the planting of rice for shad- 

 ing the young coffee and protecting it from the wind. The rice paid nearly all the 

 expenses of preparing the land and planting the coffee. After removing the grain 

 the straw was used as a mulch and the coffee is said not to have suffered, but to have 

 been advantaged by the rice, the growing of which also helps to keep down the 

 weeds. 



Otaheite apple. (See 8p>ondias didcis.) 



Oto (Panama). (See Colocasia esculenta.) 



Pachyrhizus trilobus. Yam Bean. 



A bean-like plant formerly widely cultivated for its large fleshy root; native in 

 America but introduced in prehistoric times in Polynesia and in the East Indies. 

 According to Graeffe the inhabitants of the island of Tongatabu, though not culti- 

 vating this species, welcomed it in their fallow clearings because they believed that 

 it rendered the land more quickly suitable for the resumption of yam-growing. 



Palma Christi. (See Ridnus communis.) 



Palo de Boyo (Porto Rico). (See Erythrina poeppigiana.) 



Palwan (Coorg, India). (See Erythrina indica.) 



Papaw. (See Carica papaya.) 



Papaya (Spanish America). (See Carica papaya.) 



Para rubber. (See Hevea brasiliensis.) 



Paritium tiliaceum. 



Synonym. —Hibiscus tiliaceus. 



Common name. — Mahoe (Jamaica); Majagua, or Emmajagua (Porto Rico). 



Recommended in Jamaica by Dr. Morris for Avindbreaks about cacao plantations. 

 A handsome shrub or small tree of 10 to 20 feet, bearing considerable general resem- 

 blance to the cotton plant, for which travelers have sometimes mistaken it. In Porto 

 Rico it is often planted for hedges along roadsides and is very abundant in waste 

 places near the sea. It was already widely distributed in America in prehistoric 

 times and has now been introduced throughout the Tropics. 



It is valued for its very strong bast fiber, which has much similarity to jute but 

 differs in the peculiar property of maintaining or even increasing its strength after 

 long maceration in water. The extraction of the fiber for the manufacture of cordage 

 and other purposes offers no special difficulties. It has also been recommended for 



