358 
GUATEMALA. 
Guatemala offers great advantages. At Teleman, on 
the Polochic, the quality of the uncultivated fruit is 
nearly equal to the Syrian oranges; that is, finer than 
any I have seen in Jamaica or the West Indies gener¬ 
ally, — and the same fruit can be raised on all the bot¬ 
tom-lands of the Atlantic coast. Lemons do not do so 
well, as this fruit requires a cooler climate and must 
be relegated to the higher interior valleys; but limes 
grow wild in remarkable perfection, being often used 
as hedge-plants. Raised from seed, the plants at three 
years are six feet high, and in five are bearing. On 
the western side limas, or sweet lemons, citrons, and 
toranjas, or shaddocks, grow very well. Oranges of 
many varieties can be grown in the greatest perfec¬ 
tion in the rich valleys ; and yet it is difficult to ob¬ 
tain oranges enough for home consumption even where 
the alcaldes are not so stupid as one reported during 
the cholera scare in 1884, who ordered all the orange- 
trees in his village to be cut down, as their fruit was 
sure to cause cholera! Along the coast of Honduras, 
near Trujillo, I have bought for one dollar a barrel the 
finest limes I ever saw. 
Coconuts . — On the sandy shores, where no other fruit 
will grow, the coconut flourishes. As a rule the nuts 
are not so large as those of the Pacific Islands; but I 
have seen some of good size on the north shore of the 
Island of Roatan. The low, sandy cayos and the 
equally low shores of Manabique are admirably suited 
for coconut-walks. In one place on the Hondureiian 
coast a large factory was established at great cost, but 
for some reason not known to the writer it has been 
abandoned ; and now, nowhere on the northern coast of 
