72 SHADE IN COFFEE CULTURE. 



Dr. J. X. Rose has also described the fruit and its uses: 



The fruits ripen toward the close of the dry season. At Guaymas and Mazatlan 

 they ripen the last of May. The boys and men gather the pods by the basketful and 

 sell them in the streets as bananas are sold in our own cities. The pods and seeds 

 are largely sold in the markets. The latter are often put up in little cone-shaped 

 wrappers, which with their contents are sold for a cent apiece. An old tree will pro- 

 duce many bushels of fruit, which is valued at the rate of S25 a tree. The pods are 

 about 10 to 15 cm. long; when mature somewhat reddish or flesh-colored and irregu- 

 larly swollen. After the seeds have fallen, the valves usually become strongly coiled. 

 The part which is eaten is not the seed proper, but the large, fleshy aril, which almost 

 completely surrounds and hides it, measuring 30 mm. (15 lines) long by 15 mm. (7 

 lines) thick. The aril is usually white, sometimes reddish, very crisp, sweetish, and 

 very palatable. 



The tree grows to a large size, reaching a height of 50 feet, with long, spreading 

 branches and a trunk from 1 to 4 feet in diameter. The leaves are rather small and 

 leathery and of a light-green color, and at the base of each leaf is a pair of spines. 

 The flowers are yellow and resemble those of Acacia; when in blossom the tree is said 

 to be a very attractive object. Both Dr. Palmer and Mr. Walter T. Swingle, who 

 studied this tree in the neighborhood of Guaymas, have recommended it strongly for 

 shade and ornamental purposes in southern California and similar places which, 

 like the south side of Porto Rico, are deficient in moisture. That the fruits would 

 be as highly valued among more civilized populations as in Mexico can scarcely be 

 asserted, but it seems certain that they would find a use in any tropical country. 



Pithecolobiuin montanum. 



A tree native in the mountains of Java; according to van Gorkom this species has 

 been recommended for coffee shade. 



Pithecolobium polycephalum. 



This species is recorded (Tropical Agriculturist, 1899, p. 134) as growing more 

 rapidly than Albizzia moluccana in British India, and is therefore considered very 

 promising as a coffee-shade tree. According to Index Kewensis, it is a native of the 

 American tropics. 



Pithecolobium saman. Saaian. (See PL XYI.) 

 Synonym. — Inga saman . 



Common names. — Algarrobo; Guango (Jamaica) ; Rain tree; Regen boom (Dutch 

 Colonies); Saman (Trinidad and Spanish America); Zaman. 

 A large spreading tree, 15 to 20 meters high, planted for shade in yards and public 

 grounds. The tree is inclined to be short and thick, while the branches are horizontal 

 and extremely long. According to Stahl, the wood is not very hard, with the heart 

 of a handsome red color, but on account of its lack of durability it is very little used. 

 Lecomte, on the other hand, claims that the wood is hard and adapted to a variety 

 of uses. The flowers appear in spring and summer; all the growing parts are slightly 

 hairy. 



This tree is sparingly introduced into Porto Rico, but, if the accounts of it are cor- 

 rect, it is worthy of much more general planting, as advised for Trinidad by Super- 

 intendent Hart, of the Royal Botanic Gardens of that island: 



Probably there are few tropical trees which are so useful for a variety of purposes 

 as the saman or zaman of Central America. In Jamaica this tree is known as the 

 "guango;" in Trinidad, by its Spanish name of " zaman " or its corruption "saman." 

 This tree is a native of Central America, from Nicaragua southward to Brazil. It is 

 a large umbrageous tree belonging to the order Leguminosae or the pea family, 

 many of which are noted for the property of accumulating or storing nitrogen in the 

 soil. In Jamaica it is well known, and is grown for shading " Gninea-grass " fields. 

 In Trinidad it has not the same good reputation for shade purposes, as its place is, in 

 a manner, usurped by the quicker growing u bois immortd," 





