_Talauma_, with immense white
odorous flowers and silvery leaves. This tree is exceedingly ornamental.
It is used for lumber and called Sabiuo. A _Kirtella_ with crimson
flowers is also rather common. A tree which is called Ortegon by the
natives is found at high altitudes, but chiefly near the coast. It has
immense purple spikes, more than a yard long, and is very striking. It
seems to be confined to Porto Rico and Hayti. There are many varieties
of cabinet and dye woods, including mahogany, ebony, lignum vitae, cedar
and logwood. Plants valuable in the arts and pharmacy abound. Tropical
fruits grow everywhere to perfection.

The chief products of Porto Rico, outside of lumber, may be said to be
sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, honey and wax, and these have greatly
enriched the island, making many of the people well-to-do.

Sugarcane is cultivated on the fertile plains, yielding three hogsheads
on an average per acre without any manure.

An excellent grade of coffee is produced, and it does not appear that as
yet any blight has perceptibly affected the shrubs.

Rice is very commonly cultivated on the hills in the Sierra. It must be
a kind of mountain variety, as no inundation or other kind of watering
is used.

Rice and plaintain are in fact the staple food of the natives.

Cotton and maize are also raised to a certain extent.

There should in the future be an industry from the manufacture of tannin
extracts from the bark of Coccolala, Rhizophora and the pods of various
acacias, the latter of which are a great nuisance on account of their
rapid growth.

There are a long number of fruits on the island, such as cherries, guava
plums, juicy mangoes and bell apples.

Edwin Emerson, Jr., a war correspondent, speaks of some of the fruits as
follows:

"The most astonishing and the best of all was a fruit called pulmo--in
our language, sour-sap. It is about as large as a quart bowl, and so
nourishing and full that a single fruit was enough for a good meal,
although that did not deter my horse from eating four. Later I found
that they are also relished by dogs. Of springs and streams there were
so many that I had no fear of dying of thirst. If water was not handy, I
could always climb a cocoanut tree and throw down the green nuts, which
were filled with an abundance of watery milk, more than I could drink at
one time. Other nuts there were in plenty; but many were more curious
than edible, even to my willing appetite.