Flowers bloom
every month of the year, but are most plentiful in June. Ferns, in some
instances, grow to spreading trees, with graceful drooping fronds. Many
plants have colored leaves which are as brilliant as the flowers
themselves.
[Illustration: BRANCH AND FRUIT OF THE CACAO TREE.]
Everywhere grow trees and shrubs valuable for their fruit or for their
medicinal qualities.
The leading crops are sugar cane, coffee and tobacco. Over one-half of
the exports consists of coffee, and a little less than one-fourth, of
sugar. Cacao and fruits make a large part of the remainder.
[Illustration: A PUERTO RICAN SUGAR MILL.]
Rice forms the chief food of the laboring classes, and this grows, not
on the wet lowlands, as in our country, but on the mountain sides.
Bananas and plantains are two of the important food products. Next to
these, the yam and the sweet potato form the diet of the natives.
Among the fruit trees we find cocoanut palms, tamarinds, prickly pears,
guavas, mangoes, bananas, oranges, limes, cacao (or cocao) trees and
lemons.
Among the spices found here are the pimento, or allspice, nutmeg, clove,
pepper, mace, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla.
The hills are covered with forests, which, yield valuable timber and dye
woods. Among these are mahogany, cedar, ebony, and lignum-vitae trees.
Logwood and other dye materials are common.
Many varieties of the palm flourish here, - the cocoanut palm producing
fruit in greater abundance than in any other country of the West Indies.
THE COCOA PALM.
The most abundant cocoanut groves in the world are said to be found on
Puerto Rico and the other islands of the Antilles. This tree usually
grows near the coast, for it loves the salt water; but it is sometimes
found on the hill slopes a short distance inland.
"The tree grows to a height of from sixty to eighty feet, lives a
hundred years, bears a hundred nuts each year, and is said to have a
hundred uses for man."
The trees bear such heavy burdens of fruit that it seems impossible that
so slender a trunk could hold such a weight of fruit in the air. The
fruit is expensive when it comes to us, because of the difficulty in
climbing the trees, gathering the nuts, and removing from them the heavy
fibrous husks.
[Illustration: GATHERING COCOANUTS.]
Here is a negro gathering cocoanuts. Let us watch him. He climbs the
tall tree, dragging a rope after him. About his waist is a belt in which
is thrust a machete.
He hacks off a bunch of the nuts and attaches it to the end of the rope.
It is then lowered to another negro or to the ground. The nuts are in
bunches of a dozen or two, and are covered with a green, smooth, shining
covering.
