18G0.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
837 
and becoming then united in one, thenceforth 
grew as an ordinary tree, all the branches which 
each may have borne also being interlocked 
and united as if grafted together. The utter 
impossibility of such an occurrence left me, in 
spite of my many questionings of those about 
me, without explanation of the phenomenon. 
The engraving opposite is an accurate represen¬ 
tation of the scene. 
Becoming weary of my useless attempts in 
this direction, I amused myself by examining 
the no less curious people and their rude equip¬ 
ages. I found them polite and communicative. 
They were of a mixed race between the Span¬ 
iard and the Indian, speaking the Spanish lan¬ 
guage, comfortably dressed, that is, having the 
smallest quantity of clothing consistent with 
their ideas of propriety, and were either bare¬ 
footed or wore only sandals. Their oxen were 
large, well shaped, and in good condition; the 
method of yoking them is universally by 
the horns and not by the shoulders. The 
yoke is a piece of wood neatly shaped, rest¬ 
ing upon the neck and firmly tied to the horns; 
to this is fastened the pole of the cart. What¬ 
ever may be the comparative merit of the two 
kinds of yoke, I must say that I have never seen 
oxen perform such difficult labor, as, for instance, 
drawing those rude two wheeled carts, loaded 
heavily, up and down the undressed mountain 
roads, rough and stony to an extreme, with so 
little of chafing and lameness. The carts which 
were loaded with sacks of coffee brought down 
from the famous “Cafetals” (coffee plantations) 
of Costa Rica, -were of the rudest construction; 
the wheels formed of the section of a tree, with 
a hole in the center to receive the axle, and 
sometimes shod with non; while a few hides 
thrown over the bows, formed the cover. Sugar 
cane forms almost the only food of oxen and 
mules, and every hut has as its necessary ac¬ 
companiment, a patch of bright green cane, 
which, when once planted, continues to yield 
from the same roots, almost without further la¬ 
bor from fifty to a hundred years. The stalks 
arc prepared by stripping off the hard external 
coating, and are then nutritious and palatable 
Tig. a. 
to the animals and even to man himself. I left 
these people with a better opinion of their po¬ 
liteness and intelligence than I fear they had of 
mine, for my thousand questions and minute 
examination of many things so familiar to them 
evidently caused a doubt as to my common 
sense if not my sanity. We parted however, 
Diego and I resuming our journey, and the 
parting salutations of “Adios,” “Vaya con 
Dios Senor,” (“ To God,” “ Go with God Sir,”) 
followed us. 
But to return to the subject of our tree. Dur¬ 
ing that day, and in many other days’ travel, I 
saw numerous specimens of the Mata Palo, 
without coming to a solution of the riddle: af¬ 
ter much observation of the tree however, at 
different stages of its growth, I subsequently 
learned its history, and how it had earned its 
name of Mata Palo, or tree killer. It was, so 
to speak, a tree which had fastened itself upon 
another tree, and eat out its vitals. I found the 
proof of this in various stages of growth. 
Thus, as seen in figure 2, the Mata Palo is a 
Tig. 3. 
puny plant—a parasite growing from a seed 
lodged in the bark of the original tree. During 
the long rainy season, it has sent down roots of 
sufficient length to penetrate the earth. With a 
rapid growth this plant stretches its trunk 
and branches right up among the thickest of 
the entangled mass as if it thrived by crowd¬ 
ing. Its descending roots run into the earth, 
closely attached to the bark by fibrous root¬ 
lets, and sending out side roots which stretch 
around the trunk of its foster parent, and these 
again branching, soon interlace and grow togeth¬ 
er, and as they grow, contract the space within 
their merciless grasp, as seen in our engraving, 
figure 3. The tree thus enclosed can not long¬ 
er expand its trunk in conformity with the de¬ 
mands of its nature, and therefore dies. In 
that climate, decay is as rapid as growth, and 
in a very few years all traces of the old tree 
have disappeared, and a vacant space is left 
where it formerly grew. This space indicates 
the size of the unfortunate victim. The Mata 
Palo is a species of fig tree, having a milky 
sap and a small inedible fig shaped fruit, with a 
glossy leaf, in shape and size like the Rhododen¬ 
dron. In size it becomes a first class forest tree, 
growing to the hight of one hundred and fifty 
feet or more. 
I saw one instance in which a Mata Palo had 
found its lodgement on the trunk of a Palm tree. 
It had followed its usual instincts (if we may so 
term its peculiar habits of growth) and had duly 
surrounded the Palm, so that the latter was only 
visible at two or three points of its stem and at 
a hight of fifty feet, its plume like top emerged 
from the arms of its enemy still green and flour- 
I ishing. It is a fact in vegetable physiology, prob¬ 
ably unknown to the strangling brotherhood, 
that Palms are of endogenous growth; that is, 
the new layers of wood are deposited within the 
interior of the stem, while the outside may be 
squeezed or cut without injuiy to the tree, and 
that the stem never increases in diameter, how¬ 
ever tall it may grow; quite the reverse of that 
which takes place with exogenous trees like the 
Oak, Maple, etc., whose new growths of wood 
are deposited just beneath the bark. In another 
instance a Mata Palo had mistaken a column¬ 
like mass of rock which had become detached 
from the cliff. The rock was ten feet in diame¬ 
ter and perhaps twenty feet in hight; it was well 
bound about with woody cables, but seemed 
notwithstanding very comfortable. The tree 
had apparently discovered its mistake, and wore 
an unthrifty look, though about half grown. 
One could not help exulting as at a case of dis¬ 
appointed villainy. 
-«*-*•--►-«»- 
Town Trees. 
No more is every tree a town tree, than 
is every man made to live on a pavement 
and amid piles of brick and mortar. Those 
trees which grow veiy large, are not suitable, 
nor those subject to attacks of insects, nor ten¬ 
der trees, nor weeping trees, nor those which 
can not endure smoke and dust and hard usage 
generally. Considering the great number of 
species and varieties, native and foreign, one 
might suppose, at first, that it would be an easy 
matter to find suitable trees in abundance, but 
it is not so. Some sorts flourish well for ten or 
fifteen years, but afterward become large and 
top-heavy, and are blown down by sudden gusts 
of wind. Some prosper finely when young, but 
when the bark happens to get a little injured by 
accident, the growth is suddenly checked, the 
foliage becomes sickly, and the tree unsightly. 
Others make so rampant a growth that their fo¬ 
liage hides the view of the houses behind them, 
and renders the walls damp and unhealthy. 
What is chiefly wanted in a town-tree is that 
it grow slow, never become very large, be proof 
against insects, bear pruning well, and acci¬ 
dental injuries also, and in short be very hardy. 
No tree, to our knowledge, possesses all of these 
qualities perfectly, yet some do, more than oth¬ 
ers. For example, the American White Elm, 
the common English elm, Scotch elm, English 
Linden, Mountain Ash, Norway Maple and 
most of our native maples, the Horse-Chestnut, 
the red and White Beech, and the much abused 
Ailantlius. Disagreeable as is the odor of the 
flowers of this last named tree, we believe ex¬ 
perience shows that it is in many respects veiy 
desirable for planting in towns. It will bear 
smoke, dust, and any amount of abuse. Some¬ 
body has styled it “the Metropolitan Tree.” 
This is certainly more appropriate than the 
“ heavenly ” appellation with which it was first 
introduced from abroad. 
The above trees are proper for setting by the 
sides of streets. For open squares or parks, we 
may go further, and include the magnolias, 
tulip-tree, larch, coffee-tree, yellow-wood, Judas 
tree, various oaks, the chestnut, and an assort¬ 
ment of conifers. In some of the Parks in this 
City, the Southern Cypress succeeds admirably, 
and is a beautiful tree. The Weeping Willow, 
if sparingly planted, is also suitable, and does 
well in this latitude and southward. 
By a little care on the part of those who have 
control of the planting, the streets and parks Oi 
a city might be made to contain a good arbore¬ 
tum of all the trees growing in the latitude. 
