34 FOREST CONDITIONS OF PORTO RICO. 



growing to the size of an ordinary melon. The very sweet pulp of 

 the fruit is somewhat nauseous and insipid. Eateu with the seeds it 

 has an agreeable taste, is strengthening, diuretic, antiscorbutic, acts as 

 a vermifuge, and is used in making comfits. 



The guanabana grows here, but is small. It blooms twice a year. 

 The fruit is heart shaped, more than 6 inches in thickness, and a hand- 

 breadth in length, ordinarily weighing from G to 7 pounds. Its color 

 is green at first, then turns yellow, has a net-like covering, and some 

 excrescences like grains. Its pulp is very white, tender, full of a juice 

 which is nauseous because too sweet, and contains small black seeds 

 like the watermelon. This fruit is used as a remedy for diarrhea and 

 fevers, being very cooling and healthful. The juice extracted has the 

 color and taste of muscatel wine, but it soon sours. 



The tachuelo. or totuino (calabash) tree is found near all houses. This 

 tree is quite large, its trunk and branches are crooked and knotty, 

 with a few small, fleshy, lustrous green leaves. The fruit is oval, with 

 a smooth, light-green and very compact, although pliant, covering, and 

 on the tree presents different forms. The pulp is white, spongy, like 

 that of the sandias watermelon, and the seeds resemble those of that 

 fruit, but the taste is bitter and biting or acrid. The gourd-like fruit 

 serves for plates, pitchers, spoons, and other domestic uses, furnishing 

 most of the dishes and utensils of the poor. The guichero, or guiro. a 

 peculiar musical instrument used by all the peasantry, is also made 

 of it. 



The tree called tabanuco, which yields a valuable resin, is common, 

 especially in the mountain of Luquillo. and in high parts of the island. 

 This resin is white, very bitter, and is said to kill the borer and other 

 pests that destroy wood. For this reason it was used in former times 

 for calking boats, and was of great utility because of its durability and 

 value as an insecticide. It is sometimes employed in the churches for 

 incense and as a remedy in some diseases. 



^o less useful are the resins of the trees called cupey, mora, algarroba, 

 and especially that called pinuela. The latter makes a varnish-like 

 cement so permanent that broken articles may be united so firmly that 

 they never break again at the point of uuion. 



The ceiba tree grows to over 100 feet in height. Its diameter is such 

 that from its trunk canoes are made 50 feet in length and 10 to 12 feet 

 in breadth. This tree produces a great quantity of pods, 4 inches in 

 length and 1 inch in width, which are full of a fine soft down called 

 icool of ceiba. When these pods mature they open and the wind car- 

 ries away the contents. The same is the case with the tree called 

 guao, which differs but little from this. Some value the wool highly 

 for mattresses and cushions, because they are cool and soft. 



The canatistolo is not uncommon. The tree is tall, its wood hard, of 

 a reddish color, and the leaves have the form of a lance. The tree is 



