32 FOREST CONDITIONS OF PORTO RICO. 



fine oil is made from the meat of the cocoanut, which is used for light- 

 ing and cooking. The Indians make an intoxicating drink from the 

 sap of the cocoanut tree, which at first has a bitter-sweet taste, after- 

 wards becoming sour. In Porto Rico the nuts are utilized by drinking 

 the water from them when young, by making sweetmeats from the 

 meat, and by manufacturing drinking cups and other utensils from the 

 outside shell. From the trunks of the trees the best palm boards are 

 made for houses, because of their resistance to the inclemencies of the 

 weather. There are masses of fiber at the base of the leaves, which 

 appear like bunches of tow or bast. These are the fibrous remains of 

 dried leaves which have lost their fleshy portion, and appear like 

 pieces of cloth woven from thick tow. This is used for filtering and 

 sifting. 1 



Hardly secondary to the palms in point of usefulness is the bamboo 

 cane. This beautiful plant may be seen everywhere, growing in grace- 

 ful, feathery clumps. Its stem is used for fence posts, telegraph posts, 

 and construction of the huts of the peasant. The individual joints are 

 also used for utensils, flower pots, and for propagating the cocoanut 

 seed. 



TREES VALUABLE FOR VARIOUS PRODUCTS. 



In addition to those trees used for construction, Porto Rico has many 

 which yield other valuable products. In most Spanish countries, and 

 especially in Porto Eico, trees, both cultivated and native, are utilized 

 much more for their fruits, fibers, oils, resins, and cordage properties 

 than for timber purposes. Throughout Porto Rico most of the stand- 

 ing timber growth is of this character. 



It would be an extensive list which included even a small part of the 

 useful tree-like plants of the island. Only those most noted for special 

 products are given, all of which grow without planting or cultivation, 

 except the manioc, cotton, coffee, and a few kinds of the cacao (choco- 

 late tree). In describing these plants Fray Ihigo's book, previously 

 cited, has been freely used. 



RESINOUS AND OLEAGINOUS TREES. 



The bixia tree, also called " bija" or - b achote," is very common through- 

 out the island, but more especially in the plains. It is small, the bark 

 reddish, the leaves large and hard and of a dark green. Twice a year it 

 yields fruit, bearing a prickly husk like a chestnut, which is full of 

 seeds, small and fleshy, one of which placed in the mouth turns the 

 saliva red for half a day. The inhabitants of the other West Indies 

 extract the dye from this tree, which serves for the coloring of wool, 

 cotton, and other raw material which is manufactured into cloth. " Bat 

 in Porto Rico nobody gathers what the earth offers.'' 



1 Copra, or dried cocoanut, which forms such an important article of commerce in 

 the Pacific islands, is not exported from the Antilles. 



