TREES IN MEXICO'

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HE extensive area represented by the Mexican Republic, which, due to its latitude and altitude, possesses practically all the climates of the world, varying from the perpetual snows

of its majestic volcanoes and the cold of its highest tablelands to the mild temperature of its central plains and the hot and even torrid districts of its coasts, embracing regions from the extreme north to the lands of the tropical south, offers in each zone-that is to say, cold, temperate, and hot exceedingly favorable conditions for the cultivation of fruit trees. Incidentally it may be observed that agriculture in general, up to within the last few years, has suffered from a lack of means of communication and of centers of consumption, and has, therefore, confined its activities, particularly in the interior of the Republic, to the cultivation of products most suitable for local needs, among which maize occupies the first place, that grain being preeminently a Mexican cereal and the basis of the food of the people of the great Aztec Republic, whose daily bread consists of tortillas prepared from corn meal. Mexican white maize is certainly an excellent food, used either in the form of boiled roasting ears or in that of the dried grain, made into tamales, corn gruel, tortillas, etc. Later on the cultivation of wheat was likewise extended, increasing in this manner the use of domestic flour in the most populous and modernized centers of the country, already in easy communication with each other by means of railroads, which yearly during the last 25 years, developed their lines, bringing thereby new life into the vast cultivated plains of the high tablelands and of the Mexican coasts, the latter also stimulated by increased steamship traffic.

Industrial fruit culture and horticulture for export were the last to be developed, notwithstanding that under other forms of cultivation, limited to the needs of families and of small centers of population, from time immemorial and even before the conquest, in the remote civilizations of the ancient indigenous tribes which inhabited different regions of Mexico, and where they left ruins which clearly speak of their great advancement and progress, these cultivations were practiced. The cacti, among which the nopals (sp. Opuntia) predominate, whose fruits and even whose tender leaves are eaten

1 By Dr. Mario Calvino. Translation of the original Spanish version published in the Review of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor of Habana.

The pulp of this fruit when well ripened is excellent. When shredded and served with orange juice and sugar it is an appetizing delicacy.

with relish by the Mexican people, grow profusely in the extensive arid regions of the country. The pitahayas, a different species of cactaceous shrub belonging to the Cereus family (cereus pitajaya) occupies the first place among these. The cereus trigonus, whose magnificent fruit deserves to be better known in the horticultural world, must have constituted the basis of the prehistoric fruit culture of these arid regions, as no doubt did the tejocote (Crataegeus Mexicana), the capulin (Prunus capuli), and the white zapote (Casimirola edulis) in the frigid and cold temperate zones, and the aguacate (Persea gratissima) in the warm temperate and torrid zones.

Due to these and to many other indigenous species, Mexican fruit culture offers novel and most interesting features. I propose, therefore, to make a short review of Mexican fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, so that the horticultural world may form an idea of the importance of fruit culture in the Republic.

COLD AND TEMPERATE ZONES.

The tejocote rosacea (Crataegus Mexicana), a species of hawthorn, which attains a height of about 8 meters, bears in abundance a fruit of the size of a haw, which ripens in the fall months and up to December. This fruit, when made into jellies and marmalades, forms a substance having an agreeable odor and a delicious taste. The Mexican tejocote is similar to the thorny albar (C. oxyantha) of Europe, which is considered on dry lands as the original stock or graft of the pear tree, but which is superior to the latter because of its larger growth and resistance to drouth. Furthermore the pear tree, grafted above ground on this stock, resists to a greater degree the American pear blight, the peculiar disease of the New World caused by the bacillus amilyvorus. From this point of view, that is to say considering it as the original stock of the pear and of the apple tree, the Mexican tejocote deserves the attention of fruit culturists the world over.

The capulin (Cerasus capuli, D. C.; Prunus capuli, Scr.), a tree whose trunk and branches resemble the cherry tree, but with narrower leaves, similar to that of the willow, attains a height of 8 meters. Its fruit grows in clusters like cherries, and some varieties are as good as cherries.

The capulin stock grafted with cherry increases the vigor of the graft during the first years, but there soon forms a large exostosis or knot at the point grafted and the tree dies. Probably the peach tree would do better grafted on this stock, and, in the latter case, the capulin would be of great service because of its resistance to crown gall (bacillus tumefaciens). As yet, however, I have been unable to make complete experiments along these lines.

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FRUIT TREES OF MEXICO.

Photograph to the left: Mexican coconut palm. This fruit is cultivated in the tropical climates of Mexico. Photograph on the right: The papaya tree (carica papaya) produces abundant and delicious fruit containing a medicinal substance known as papain.

Walnuts and pecans. The indigenous walnut trees in the northern part of the Republic are represented by the Juglans rupestris and the Juglans nigra, while the pecan trees are of the varieties Caria olivaeformis, and C. mexicana. Pecan trees, with their varieties brought from the United States, are of great worth and promise throughout the entire world. In Mexico there are fine varieties, not yet studied which grow in the deep, fertile soil of the canyons, are subject to irrigation, and which yield abundant crops. Irrigation is indispensable in obtaining large crops of pecans.

The aguacate tree (Persea gratissima) is the queen of the laurels. In temperate climates it grows to the height of 12 meters. It is a tropical tree which was in remote times acclimated in the cold tablelands of Mexico, and is now also cultivated in the orange belt of California. But in Mexico it resists the elements and bears fruit where the orange tree would be badly damaged by cold. The mesocarp of the ripened fruit of the aguacate is composed of a fragrant and highly palatable pulp. The fruit is excellent, in every way, and as the tree has a wide area of acclimatization and there are many varieties of the same, it is much to be desired that its cultivation extend over the entire area where the orange thrives. Planting the seeds of the acclimatized plants in the cold regions of the tablelands of Mexico and grafting the plants upon each other will make it easier to obtain vigorous trees similar to those grown in the Mediterranean basin.

White sapota (Casimiroa edulis) is not a sapodilla, as its Mexican name would indicate, but is akin to the citrus. It is a tree of medium size, with digitate leaves, and attains a height of 10 meters. The fruit, when ripe, is yellowish green and is very sweet. It is also cultivated in California, where it grows to perfection.

Another Casimiroa, under the name of C. tetrameria, is grown in Yucatan and produces a fruit eaten by the natives. This plant is entirely tropical.

HOT ZONE.

The dark sapota (Diospyros ebenaster) is also not a sapodilla, but is a plant of the same botanic order as the sapodilla, although of a different family. It is an ebenácea of the same family and of the same botanic genus as the Kaki of Japan. The dark Mexican zapota could be called green kaki by reason of the color of the epicarp, and also black kaki because of the color of the pulp or mesocarp of the fruit. This plant thrives in temperate and hot climates, and the pulp, when well ripened, is an excellent food. It is eaten by cutting it into pieces, and adding sugar and orange juice, which make it a delicacy of exquisite taste. This Mexican fruit deserves to be better known and more generally cultivated throughout the world. There are large and small varieties of the fruit having but few seeds.