CHAPTER V

USES OF PLANTS TO MAN

For perhaps the largest number of readers the chief value of plants is

what they furnish in the way of food, clothing, fuel, and so forth, and

from this standpoint alone the study of them is more than worth while.

It is unnecessary here to enumerate all the thousand and one things that

we get from plants, and no attempt will be made to do so in the

following pages. But certain plants like wheat, corn, cotton, jute,

rubber producers, and tobacco have so shaped the life of the people, so

absolutely dictated the development of whole regions of the earth’s

surface that their stories are part of the history of mankind. What our

cotton fields of the South, the wheat and corn fields of the Middle

West, the jute in India, and the coconut palm and sugar cane in the

tropics have done to dictate the economic destiny of those regions is

common knowledge. Hundreds of less important plants throughout the world

contribute their quota to the huge debt that man owes to the plant

world. Probably no other feature of plant life offers such attractions

as the study of man’s uses of plants, which is known as Economic Botany,

and for which our Government maintains a large staff of experts. Some of

the publications of this bureau are textbooks of the greatest value to

those who grow or import plants or their products. What that amounts to

in the aggregate no one can readily estimate. It certainly exceeds all

other commerce combined.

1. FOODS

Those early ancestors of ours that roamed over northern and central

Europe between the periods of ice invasion, which at times made all that

country uninhabitable, tell us by the relics of them found in caves that

agriculture was then unknown. Living mostly by the chase and on a few

wild fruits picked from the forest these half-wild and savage people

wandered wherever game was plentiful and the continental glacier would

permit. But there came a day when one of these races began the

cultivation of some of the wild plants about them and with that day

dawned the real beginning of man’s use of plants. And with that day also

these simplest of our ancestors stopped their wanderings in large part

and became farmers, albeit very crude ones, as their primitive stone

implements show. They did not give up the chase, but their collection

into more or less permanent camps or villages began with their

cultivation of plants. Just when this happened no one can say, but most

estimates of the time since the last ice age indicate that it could not

have been much less than forty thousand years ago. And considerably

before this, and long before the use of metals by man, we find these

stone implements of agriculture and the probable beginnings of that

great reliance upon plant life which the modern world has carried to

such tremendous lengths. Unfortunately we do not know what plants these

“Men of the Old Stone Age” grew in their primitive gardens, and it is

thousands of years after this, and after man’s discovery of the use of

metals, that we know definitely what plants he grew and how he used

them. Unquestionably some of the early uses of plants, such as dyes for

the face or for “rock pictures” are very ancient and are found long

before any sign of agriculture, but as food in the sense of being

produced food rather than that gathered from the wild, there are only

the faintest traces until, in the remains of the lake dwellers in

Austria, a single grain of wheat was discovered. Their metal instruments

showed them to have been familiar not only with this, but with other

plants, and it is well to remember that these people lived far longer

ago than our most ancient historical records such as the Egyptians or

Chinese. Both the latter, so far as our oldest records of them show,

were an agricultural people who had enormously developed man’s uses of

plants as compared with the men of the stone or bronze ages, whose

agriculture must perhaps forever be a secret of the past.

WHEAT

The discovery of the grain of wheat in the remains of the lake dwellers

tells us some things about men’s travels even in those early days, for

wheat is not a wild plant there and must have come to central Europe

from a great distance. Researches upon the home and antiquity of wheat

are not very definite, but its occurrence as a wild plant somewhere in

Mesopotamia or the vicinity appears to be indicated. The Chinese grew it

2700 B.C. and the earliest Egyptians spoke of its origin with them as

due to mythical personages such as Isis, Ceres, or Triptolemus. From its

ancient and perhaps rather restricted home it has gone throughout the

temperate parts of the earth and now forms perhaps the most important

source of food. Although many different kinds of wheat are raised in

different parts of the world most of them have been derived from one

wild ancestor, _Triticum sativum_. Forms known as hard and soft wheat

and dozens of others suited to different regions or market conditions

have been developed by plant breeders. As the most important of all the

cereals it has been much studied, and its cultivation in America is on

such a tremendous scale that we furnish a large part of the world’s

supply. Russia, Argentina, and the southern part of Australia also raise

large quantities. The plant is a grass and the “seed” is really a grain

or fruit in which the outer husk tightly incloses the true seed.

It were perhaps well to note here that popular stories about the

germination of grains of wheat taken from Egyptian mummies are not true.

Wheat and even corn are sometimes given to travelers, and it is taken

from these ancient Egyptian tombs. But it was not put there by the early

Egyptians, as the presence of corn proves only too well. For this cereal

is an American plant unknown before Columbus and 1492. Arabs and others

have recently inserted various seeds in these mummies, some of which

undoubtedly have germinated--hence the fable. The early Egyptians did

put seeds in their mummy cases, but none have ever germinated.

INDIAN CORN OR MAIZE

The grass family furnishes this second most important cereal to all

Americans and Europeans, although among inhabitants of tropical regions

rice is perhaps more important than either wheat or corn. With the

discovery of America the early travelers found the North American

Indians, the Mexicans, and the Peruvians all growing corn and using it

on a considerable scale. It must have been grown for hundreds of years

before that time, as its wide distribution and many varieties testified

even at that date. Its true home nor its actual wild ancestor has never

been certainly determined, but a wild plant very closely related to our

modern corn is found in the northern part of South America, and either

there or in Central America is apparently the ancient home of corn. So

much had corn entered into the life of the early Mexicans that the first

Europeans to visit that country found the Mexicans making elaborate

religious offerings to their corn goddess. And, as in Egypt, the tombs

of the Incas of Peru contain seeds of the cereal most prized, which in

the case of corn consists of several varieties. While their civilization

is not as old as certain Old World races, the cultivation of corn must

date back to the very beginnings of the Christian era. It is now spread

throughout the world in warm regions, and as early as 1597 it was grown

in China, a fact that led to the erroneous notion that China was its

true home. Perhaps no fact is more conclusive as to its American origin

than that corn belongs to a genus _Zea_, which contains only the single

species _mays_, with perhaps one or two varieties, and that until the

discovery of America _Zea mays_ or Indian corn was unknown either as a

wild or cultivated plant. Such an important cereal, if it actually were

wild in the Old World, would have spread thousands of years ago as wheat

did, and Columbus and his adventurous successors would not have brought

from the New World a food that has since become second only to wheat.

Field corn of several different sorts, pop corn, and sweet corn were all

developed by the Indians from the ancient stock, but comparatively

recently the juice of the stem has been used for making corn sirup. The

use of the leaves for cattle feed is known to all farmers, and from its

solid stems it is now likely that some fiber good for paper making will

be extracted.

RICE

Both wheat and corn are grasses that are cultivated in ordinary farm

soils, but rice is derived from a grass that is nearly always grown for

part of its life in water. It is taller than wheat, but not so tall as

corn, and its wild home is in the tropical parts of southeastern Asia.

It is still grown there in greatest quantity, and in the Philippines,

while only a small part of the world’s supply comes from the New World.

There are perhaps more people that rely upon rice for food than upon

wheat and corn combined. It still is the principal article of diet of

the inhabitants of China, Japan, India, and dozens of smaller Old World

regions, while its use as a vegetable in tropical America is practically

universal. A considerable part of the starch manufactured in Europe

still comes from rice, and in India the intoxicating beverage arrack is

made from it. The Japanese saké, a sweetish intoxicating liquor, is also

made from rice. Notwithstanding its wide use it is not as nutritious as

wheat or corn, being much lower in proteins than either of them.

More than 2800 years before Christ the Chinese cultivated rice, for at

that time one of the emperors instituted a ceremony in which the grain

plays the chief part. It has been grown on land useful to almost no

other crops as it is usually subject to inundations. Some varieties,

however, have been developed which will grow on uplands and these are

grown even on terraced land both in China and the Philippines. It needs

a heavy rainfall, however, and grows best in lands that are flooded. It

is occasional dry seasons that produce the famines of India when the

crop fails. The botanical name of rice is _Oryza sativa_, and it is

known now as a wild plant in India and tropical Australia. Its

introduction into Europe must have been long after wheat, for rice is

not mentioned in the Bible, and was unknown in Italy before 1468, when

it was first grown near Pisa. Rice paper, which some people think is

made from this grain, comes from the pith of _Aralia papyrifera_, a tree

of the rain forests of Formosa, related to our temperate region

Hercules’-club.

SUGAR

In the chapter on what plants do with the material they take from the

air and soil we found that sugar was one of the first fruits of that

process. In at least two plants the overproduction of sugar is on such a

great scale that our chief supplies of this substance now come from

these two plants--the sugar cane, which is a tall grass, and the sugar

beet. Hundreds of other plants produce surplus sugar, but for commercial

purposes these two, and the sap of the sugar maple (_Acer saccharum_),

are our chief sources of supply.

Cane sugar is an Old World grass known as _Saccharum officinarum_,

frequently growing twelve feet high, and with a solid woody stem, quite

unlike our ordinary grasses. It looks not unlike corn on a stout stem,

and it is the stem which is cut and from which the sweet juice is

pressed out between great rollers. The pressed-out juice goes through

various processes in the course of which first molasses, then brown

sugar, and finally white granulated sugar are produced.

Our consumption of sugar is now on such a scale that we scarcely realize

that before the days of Shakespeare it was very scarce and expensive.

Even as recently as 1840 it regularly sold in England for forty-eight

shillings per hundred pounds, wholesale. At that time the total

consumption in the world was only slightly over a million tons, while

to-day it is over fifteen times that amount. The plant is native in

tropical Asia, but just where is not known, nor are wild plants found in

any quantity. It has been much modified by long cultivation, and has

been reproduced by root-stocks for so long a period that it is rare for

the plant to bear flower and seed. It has been known in India since

before the Christian era, and was taken from there to China about 200 B.

C. Neither the Greeks nor Romans knew much about it, nor do the Hebrew

writings mention it. Somewhere in the Middle Ages the Arabs brought it

into Egypt, Sicily, and Spain. Not until the discovery of the New World

was it cultivated on any considerable scale, when the climate of Santo

Domingo and Cuba and the African slaves imported to those islands

afforded conditions that resulted in Cuba at least being one of the

world’s chief sugar-producing countries. Sugar cane is now grown all

over the earth in regions with a hot, moist climate, India and

neighboring countries producing over half the world’s supply.

Practically all the sugar produced in India is used there, however, so

that the American tropics furnish to Europe and America about one-third

of the world’s total consumption of cane sugar.

In 1840 under fifty thousand tons of beet sugar were produced, while in

1900 more sugar from this plant was made than from sugar cane.

Considerably more than half this beet sugar was grown in three

countries, Russia, Austria, and Germany, which explains what the great

war has done to the sugar market. The plant from which beet sugar is

derived is botanically the same as the common garden beet, _Beta

vulgaris_, which is wild on sandy beaches along the Mediterranean and

Caspian seas, and perhaps in India. Much cultivation has made this

slender-rooted plant into the large-rooted vegetable we now have and its

sugar content was much increased by Vilmorin, a French horticulturist.

Many garden varieties are known, and some of these are grown in the

United States, where beet sugar is produced, although in 1910 less than

half a million tons were made here as against over four million tons in

Europe. While the beet as a vegetable was known perhaps a century or two

before the time of Christ, it was not until 1760 that its sugar content

was understood, and it was nearly eighty years later before beet sugar

became commercially important. Its cultivation in England on any

considerable scale did not begin before the beginning of the present

century.

THE BANANA

Among the largest herbs in the world are the ordinary banana plants, now

cultivated throughout the tropical regions, but originally native in the

Malay Archipelago. From there it spread into India, and the early

Greeks, Latins, and Arabs considered it a remarkable fruit of some

Indian tree. It is actually a giant herb with a tremendous fleshy stem,

formed mostly of the tightly clasping leaf bases, the blade of which is

frequently ten to twelve feet long. In nature the blade splits into many

segments due to tearing by the wind, a process that the plant not only

tolerates but aids. The leaf has a thinner texture between its principal

lateral veins, and along these weaker parts the leaf tears so that

normal plants are usually almost in ribbons. The leaf expanse, without

this relief, is so great that tropical storms would doubtless destroy

the plant.

Many wild species of the banana are still found in tropical Old World

countries, the genus _Musa_ to which the banana belongs having over

sixty-five species. There are at least three well-marked types of banana

used to-day, two of them, our common yellow one and a smaller red sort

being fruits of almost universal use. The remaining type is usually

larger than the kinds sent to northern markets, is picked and used while

still green and is always cooked before using, usually boiled as a

vegetable. In this form it is known as the _plantain_, and is a good

substitute for the potato in regions where the latter cannot be grown.

Plantains are used on a large scale in all tropical countries, much more

so than the yellow and red bananas which are familiar enough in northern

markets. These are too sweet to be used as a staple diet, and the

plantain is practically the only such diet which millions of the poorer

people in the tropics ever get. There is almost no native hut but has

its plantain field.

The flowers of the banana plants, all of which appear to be derived from

the single species _Musa sapientum_ or possibly also from _Musa

paradisiaca_, are borne in a large terminal cluster which ultimately

develops into the “hand” of bananas familiar in the fruit shops. The

plant then dies down and a new one develops from a shoot at the base of

the old stem. For countless ages this has been the only method of

reproduction, and usually the banana produces no seeds. The plant is

easily grown in greenhouses, one in the conservatory of the Brooklyn

Botanic Garden producing 214 pounds in a single cluster consisting of

300 bananas.

POTATO

Sir Walter Raleigh is usually credited with the introduction of the

potato into Europe, although it appears as though the Spaniards were the

first to bring the plant from America. It was brought to Ireland in 1585

or 1586 and from its wide use there became known as the Irish potato.

Its native home is in southern South America, and although Columbus did

not mention it after his first and second voyages, subsequent Spanish

adventurers found natives on the mainland making extensive use of it.

There are now several wild relatives of it in South America, but their

tubers are not so large as those of _Solanum tuberosum_ from which all

the different varieties of potato have been derived. The plant is too

well known to need description here, but its edible tuber, actually a

stem organ, is often wrongly called a root. Figure 8 shows the tubers

and true roots of the plant.

The sweet potato, which in early writings was often confused with

_Solanum tuberosum_, is a very different plant. Its edible portion is

the root of a vine very like our common morning-glory or convolvulus,

and its Latin name is _Ipomœa batatas_. The specific name is taken

from a native American word, which due to early confusion was corrupted

into potato, and applied to the “Irish” potato. No one certainly knows

where the sweet potato is native, but probably in tropical America. It

belongs to a section of the genus _Ipomœa_, all the other species of

which are American, and before Columbus and his followers its

cultivation was unknown in the Old World. It was very soon carried by

the Portuguese to Japan and other parts of the Old World, and for a time

it was thought to be native there. America, however, is in all

probability its ancient home, although no really wild plant has ever

been found there or anywhere else. Its cultivation from very early times

in America is indicated, and Columbus upon his return from the New World

presented sweet potatoes to Queen Isabella.

COCONUT

It has been said many times that there are more uses for this plant than

there are days in a year. Wood, thatch, rope, matting, an intoxicating

beverage, and scores of other things are derived from different parts of

this palm, but it is as a food and beverage that its chief value lies.

The coconut palm is a tall tree with a dense crown of feathery but stout

leaves and inhabits all parts of the tropics. It is found apparently

wild along sandy shores, but its ancient home, while still unknown, is

probably America. Each year the tree bears from ten to twenty fruits

which are at first covered with a green and very tough fibrous husk,

inside which is the seed, the coconut of commerce. In the early stages

of the fruit the white meat is preceded in large part by a delicious

milky liquid much used by the natives, but only rarely found in any

quantity in the coconuts shipped to our markets. The meat is highly

nutritious and is used on a great scale as food by millions of tropical

peoples. Within the last few years a method of taking out the meat of

the coconut and shipping it in a state of arrested fermentation to the

north has been discovered. This product, known as copra, is produced in

enormous quantities, both in the Old and the New World, particularly in

India and the Philippines. From this copra a palm oil is refined, which

is the chief source of the nut butter now so widely sold. Some idea of

the extent of the cultivation of coconuts may be gleaned from the fact

that in India and the Philippines the trees are counted by the hundreds

of millions. The oil from the nuts is also largely used in cookery, in

making candles, for burning in lamps, and in making certain kinds of

perfume. The tree belongs to the _Palmaceæ_, a monocotyledonous family

of plants of great commercial importance. It is known as _Cocos

nucifera_, and the genus has over a hundred species, all of tropical

American origin. Whether _Cocos nucifera_ is American or not is still a

disputed point. From the fact that it will float in sea water without

injury to the seed it has been supposed that it was carried great

distances by currents. It is found both wild and cultivated throughout

the tropical world, and its use appears to have been known to the

Asiatics probably four thousand years ago. The curious fact remains that

it is the only palm that, in its wild state, is known both in the Old

and New World, all others being peculiar to one hemisphere or the other.

Perhaps its capacity for floating in the sea without injury may explain

what is otherwise still a good deal of a mystery.

There are many other foods derived from plants, besides all the fruits

and vegetables too numerous to be noted in detail here. One fact of

significance seems to stand out from a study of the uses of plants by

man. There are three distinct regions from which the great bulk of our

food and many other useful plants have apparently come. One is the area

of which Indo-China is approximately the center, and which is the

ancestral home of rice, the banana, tea, sugar cane, and many other

valuable plants. Somewhere in this southeastern corner of Asia there

must have been a highly developed agriculture which rescued these plants

from the wild, and from which they have spread throughout the world. The

second region, somewhere near Mesopotamia, appears to be the cradle of

wheat and a few other useful plants. And the third region is the western

part of America from southern Mexico to northern Chile, where corn,

tobacco, the pineapple, sweet potato, potato, the red pepper, and the

tomato were all discovered with the discovery of this continent.

Alphonse de Candolle, from whose studies much of our information on the

origin of cultivated plants is derived, once prepared a list of our

common vegetables showing their ancient homes, their wild ancestors, and

the length of time during which they have been in cultivation. With some

recent additions and corrections by Dr. Orland E. White of the Brooklyn

Botanic Garden, the list is printed below:

The letters indicate the probable length of cultivation.

(_a_) A species cultivated for more than 4,000 years.

(_b_) A species cultivated for more than 2,000 years.

(_c_) A species cultivated for less than 2,000 years.

(_d_) A species cultivated very anciently in America.

(_e_) A species cultivated in America before 1492 without giving

evidence of great antiquity of culture.

(_f_) A species or subspecies of very recent domestication.

COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME DATE ORIGIN

Artichoke, Globe _Cynara Scolymus_ L. C Southern Europe,

northern Africa,

Canary Islands.

Artichoke, _Helianthus tuberosus_ L. E Eastern North America.

Jerusalem

Asparagus _Asparagus officinalis_ L. B Europe, western temperate

Asia.

Bean (Broad

or Windsor) _Vicia Faba_ L. B(?) Temperate Europe.

Bean (Pole

Lima) _Phaseolus lunatus_ L. E Tropical America, Peru,

Brazil.

Bean (Bush

Lima) _Phaseolus lunatus_ L. F Eastern North America.

Bean (String,

etc.) _Phaseolus vulgaris_ L. D Western South America.

Bean (Tepary) _Phaseolus acutifolius_ D Southwestern United

Gray States.

Bean (Adzuki) _Phaseolus angularis_

Willd. B(?) China, Japan.

Beet (Chard) _Beta vulgaris_ L. B Canary Islands,

Mediterranean region,

western temperate

Asia.

Beet (Root) _Beta vulgaris_ L. B Europe, Mediterranean

region.

Broccoli _Brassica oleracea_ var.

_botrytis_ DC. C Western Asia.

Brussels

sprouts _Brassica oleracea_ var.

_gemmifera_ DC. C Belgium (?)

Cabbage _Brassica oleracea_ L. A Western Asia.

Cabbage

(Chinese) _Brassica Pe-tsai_ Bailey B China, Japan.

Carrot _Daucus Carota_ L. B Europe, western temperarate

Asia.

Cauliflower _Brassica oleracea_ B Western Asia.

_botrytis_ DC.

Celeriac _Apium graveolens_ L. var.

_rapaceum_ DC. C Europe.

Celery _Apium graveolens_ L. B Temperate and southern

Europe, northern

Africa, western

Asia.

Chives _Allium Schoenoprasum_ L. C Temperate Europe,

Siberia, northern

North America.

Corn (field) _Zea Mays_ L. D Mexico, northwestern

South America (?)

Corn (sweet) _Zea Mays saccharata_ E Eastern North America,

Sturt. New England.

Cress (garden) _Lepidium sativum_ L. B Persia (?).

Cress (water) _Radicula

Nasturtium-aquaticum_ L. B Europe, northern Asia.

Cucumber _Cucumis sativus_ L. A India.

Cucumber

(gherkin) _Cucumis Anguria_ L. F West Indies.

Dandelion _Taraxacum officinale_ Weber C Europe and Asia.

Egg plant

(aubergine) _Solanum Melongena_ L. A India, East Indies.

Endive _Cichorium Endiva_ L. C Mediterranean region,

Caucasus, Turkestan.

Garlic _Allium sativum_ L. B Kirghis desert region

in Siberia.

Horse-radish _Roripa Armoracea_ L. C Eastern temperate

Europe, western

Asia.

Kale _Brassica oleracea_

var. _acephala_ DC. B Europe.

Kohl-rabi _Brassica oleracea_

var. _Caulo-Rapa_ DC. B Europe.

Leek _Allium Porrum_ L. B Mediterranean region,

Egypt.

Lentil _Lens esculenta_ Moench A Western temperate

Asia, Greece.

Lettuce _Lactuca sativa_ L. B Southern Europe,

western Asia.

Mushroom _Agaricus campestris_ L. C Northern hemisphere

(Europe).

Okra (gumbo) _Hibiscus esculentus_ L. C Tropical Africa.

Onion _Allium Cepa_ L. A Persia, central Asia.

Onion (Welsh) _Allium fistulosum_ L. C Siberia, Kirghis desert

region to Lake Baikal.

Parsley _Petroselinum Hortense_

Hoffm. C Southern Europe,

Algeria, Lebanon.

Parsnip _Pastinaca sativa_ L. C(?) Central and southern

Europe.

Pea (garden) _Pisum sativum_ L. A Western and central

Asia, southern

Europe, north

India (?).

Pea (wrinkled

garden) _Pisum sativum_ L. F England (?).

Pea (edible

podded) _Pisum sativum_

var. _saccharatum_ Hort. C Holland, etc.

Pepper (red) _Capsicum annuum_ L. E Brazil, western South

America.

Potato _Solanum tuberosum_ L. E Chile, Peru.

Potato (sweet) _Ipomœa Batatas_ Poir. D Tropical America.

Pumpkin _Cucurbita pepo_ L. E Subtropical and tropical

America.

Radish _Raphanus sativus_ L. B Temperate Asia.

Radish (Japanese

giant or

Daikon) _Raphanus sativus_ L. (?) Japan, China.

Rhubarb _Rheum Rhaponticum_ L. C Desert and subalpine

regions of southern

Siberia, Volga River.

Rutabaga _Brassica oleracea_

var. _Napo-Brassica_ L. C Europe.

Salsify or

Oyster plant _Tragopogon porrifolius_ L. C(?) Southeastern Europe

or Algeria.

Spinach _Spinacea oleracea_ L. C Persia, southwestern

Asia.

Spinach (New

Zealand) _Tetragonia expansa_

Thunb. F New Zealand.

Squash

(winter) _Cucurbita maxima_

Duch. E or D Tropical America.

Squash

(summer) _Cucurbita Pepo_ L. E Temperate or tropical

America.

Tomato _Lycopersicum esculentum_

Mill. F Peru.

Tomato (currant

or

raisin) _L. pimpinellifolium_ Dunal F South America.

Turnip _Brassica Rapa_ L. A Europe.

Yams Several sp. including

_Dioscorea alata_ L.

and _D. Batatas_ Decne. B (?) Southeastern Asia,

Africa and South

Pacific Islands.

The following list of the common fruits also gives their native country,

period of cultivation, and some additional notes about them. Those

marked with a star were found in the markets of New York City by Dr.

White, who also revised this list. The letters for the dates are the

same as in the list of vegetables:

NAME DATE ORIGIN REMARKS

Achocon F(?) Peru Relative of the violet.

Much esteemed locally.

*Actinidia (?) N. E. Asia, China Tastes something like a

gooseberry, with a fig

flavor.

Akee F W. tropical Africa Much esteemed cooked

fruit in Jamaica.

*Alligator pear E West Indies, W. Excellent salad fruit.

(avocado) South America to

Chile

Anchovy pear West Indies Unripe fruit pickled.

*Apple A E. Europe, W. Asia Very different type common

to China

*Apricot A Central Asia, China Wild species variable.

*Banana A Southern Asia Exists in hundreds

of varieties.

*Blackberry F United States Wild species very variable.

*Blueberry F E. and N. North Four species. Often confused

America with huckleberry.

Breadfruit (?) East Indies Baked and eaten as a

vegetable.

Buffalo berry F N. W. United States Very acid, bright red or

yellow fruit. Local.

*Cactus fig E Mexico, West Indies Common New York City

fruit.

Cambuca (?) Brazil Subacid garden fruit.

Local.

Cashew (?) Tropical America Fruit excellent as preserves.

*Cherry, sour B Asia Minor, S. E. Locally common.

Europe (?)

[Illustration: A BANANA PLANTATION IN FRUIT. The banana is now grown

throughout the tropical world, but native in tropical southeastern Asia.

(_Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic Garden._)]

[Illustration: RICE TERRACES IN CHINA. In many regions where the forests

have been destroyed and all the soil washed into the valleys,

agriculture has to be carried on under conditions of great difficulty.

Soil is brought up these slopes and held there by the artificially made

terraces. (_Photo by Bailey Willis. Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic

Garden._)]

NAME DATE ORIGIN REMARKS

*Cherry, sweet B S. Europe, E. Asia N. Y. City markets from

California.

Chirimoya E Ecuador, Peru Repeatedly dug up from

prehistoric graves in

Peru.

Chupa-chupa F Colombia Apricot-mango flavored.

Citron B India, S. Asia Very variable.

*Cranberry F E. and N. North Cultivated for about 100

America years.

*Currant, black C N. Europe and Asia Rarely cultivated in America.

*Currant, red C N’th’n Hemisphere White and yellow varieties

are forms.

*Custard apple (?) Tropical America

*Date A Arabia, north Hundreds of varieties.

Africa

Dewberry F South and central Form of blackberry.

North America

Duku (?) Malay Peninsula Fine Malayan fruit, somewhat

turpentine in

flavor.

Durian F Malaysia, East Odor of old cheese, rotten

Indies onions flavored with

turpentine. Delicious except

for odor.

*Fig A Southern Arabia Wild form common.

Genip (?) N. South America Children’s fruit.

Genipap (?) American tropics Used for a refreshing

drink locally.

*Gooseberry C N. Europe, N. Old and New World species

Africa, W. Asia, distinct. New World

United States varieties in some cases

hybrids.

“Goumi” berry (?) Japan, China Delicious acid fruit.

*Grape, New North America Many probably hybrids.

World F

*Grape, Old Western temperate California and Old World

World A Asia grape.

*Grapefruit B Malayan and Pacific Largely cultivated in U. S.

Is., east of Java

Ground cherry F Barbadoes, W. South Three or more species.

America, Asia

Grumixama (?) Brazil Much like bigarreau

cherry.

*Guava E Tropical America Fruits of several species

used.

Haw China, South United Local fruit.

(2 species) (?) States

Icaco F (?) Tropical America Common fruit in San Salvador.

Jaboticaba F Brazil Common fruit tree around

Rio Janeiro.

Jujube, China Very excellent dried fruit

common B in China.

Juneberry F United States, Locally esteemed.

Canada

*Kumquat (?) Cochin-China or Resembles very small

China oranges.

*Lemon B India

*Lime B India Largely used for limade

and citric acid.

*Litchi and S. China, Malay Finest Chinese fruit. Numerous

relatives C Archipelago forms.

*Loquat (?) Central-east’n Much esteemed in China

China and Japan.

Lulo F Colombia Tomatolike fruit.

Mammee

apple (?) West Indies to “St. Domingo apricot.”

Brazil

*Mango A (?) India “Should be eaten in a

bathtub.”

Mangosteen (?) Sunda Islands, King of tropical fruits.

Malay Peninsula

Marang (?) Sulu Archipelago Similar to but much better

than breadfruit.

Marmalade Mexico, N. E. Resembles in taste a ripe,

plum E South America luscious pear.

Matasano Central America “Delicious.”

Medlar C Central Europe to Local applelike fruit.

W. Asia

Monstera F Mexico Pineapple-banana flavor.

Mulberry, Armenia, N. Persia Most valued for fruit.

black B (?)

Mulberry, India, Mongolia Most valued for feeding

white A (?) silk worms.

*Muskmelon C India, Beluchistan, Hundreds of varieties.

W. Africa

Natal plum F South Africa Local fruit for preserves.

*Nectarine (?) Cultivated form of Smooth-skinned.

peach

*Olive A Syria, southern Does not fruit in Florida.

Anatolia and

neighboring

islands

*Orange, king (?) Cochin-China Recently common in New

York City markets.

*Orange, sweet C India Numerous hybrids with

other species.

*Orange, Cochin-China, China

tangerine ?

Papaw F South’n United Local fruit related to the

States custard apple.

Papaw, true E Tropical America Excellent breakfast fruit.

*Passiflora F (?) Tropical America Used locally for ices, fruit

salads, jams, etc.

*Peach E China Hundreds of varieties.

*Pear A Temperate Europe Two species, and hybrids

and Asia, N. between them.

China

*Persimmon (?) Northern China Common in New York

City markets.

*Pineapple E American tropics. Red Spanish and sugar

loaf, common market

varieties.

Piñuela (?) Mexico, C. America Sold cooked in Mexico.

and N. South Common market fruit

America of Caracas.

*Plantain Form of banana.

*Plum A S. Europe, W. Asia, Much hybridized group.

N. America

*Pomegranate A Caucasus, Persia, A seedless variety is

Afghanistan, known.

Beluchistan

*Quince A Persia to Turkestan “Apple of Cydon” (Crete).

*Raspberries, Middle N. America Locally much esteemed

black F American fruit.

*Raspberries, red C N. Europe, Asia, N. Varieties and hybrids of

America two species.

Rose apple B Malaysia, S. Asia Rose-water taste and

perfume.

Rose apple Tropics of Old and Many promising local

relatives New Worlds fruits.

*St.-John’s-Bread A (?) Syria, S. Anatolia, Common dried pod fruit

Barca (?) in New York City.

Sand cherry F N. W. United States Local fruit.

*Sapodilla E West Indies, “Chicle” or chewing gum

Central America, made from its sap.

N. South America

Sapote, black F Mexico Relative of persimmon.

Shaddock B East Indies Large pyriform relative of

grapefruit.

Soursop (?) West Indies Locally esteemed.

Star apple E W. Indies, Central Delicious. “Damson

America plum.”

*Strawberry F Temperate N. At least three species

America, Pacific involved. Mostly

coast of N. and hybrids.

S. America, Europe

Strychnos Bush veldt of South Tastes like clove-flavored

apple F Africa. pears.

*Sweetsop (?) West Indies Locally esteemed.

Tahiti apple (?) Society, Friendly, Common tropical fruit.

Fiji Islands

Tahiti apple South America Common West Indian

relatives (?) fruit.

*Tamarind B (?) Either India or N. Occasional New York

Africa City fruit.

“Tomato,” tree (?) Peruvian Andes Apricot-flavored tomato.

*Watermelon A Tropical and South Often a desert plant.

Africa

2. BEVERAGES

The operation of the Eighteenth Amendment to our Constitution will stop

the manufacture in this country of the chief beverages that were made

here from plants. All wines and brandies were from the juice of the

grape, whiskey from rye and some other cereals, and beer from hops and

barley. Our three remaining beverages of practically universal use are

none of them produced in the United States, with the exception of a

little tea grown in a more or less experimental way.

TEA

It is related in an old legend that a priest going from India into China

in 519 A.D. who desired to watch and pray fell asleep instead. In a fit

of anger or remorse he cut off his eyelids which were changed into the

tea shrub, the leaves of which are said to prevent sleep. Unfortunately

for the story tea was known in China more than three thousand years

before the date of that legend, and it is very doubtful if it was ever

brought from India to China. The wild home of the tea is apparently in

the mountainous regions between China and India, but the plant will not

stand the frost, so that its cultivation is now mostly in parts of

China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Java, and some in Brazil.

The plant is mostly a shrub or occasionally a small tree, with white

fragrant flowers and evergreen oval-pointed leaves. All the different

kinds of tea are derived from the single species _Camellia Thea_, the

differences in color and flavor being due to processes of culture or

curing of the leaves.

[Illustration: FIG. 99.--TEA

(_Camellia Thea_)

A shrub or small tree with white fragrant flowers.]

While the use of tea has been known to the Chinese for over four

thousand years, its introduction into Europe dates from the days of the

Dutch East India Company, who brought some to Holland about 1600, and by

the English East India Company, who sent some from China to England in

1669. It fetched at that time 60 shillings per pound for the common

black kinds and as much as £5 to £10 per pound for the finer kinds. It

was almost fifty years, or about 1715, before the price fell to 15

shillings per pound. From that time until the present there has been a

tremendous increase in its use, although then as now the great bulk of

the world’s tea is used by the Mongolians and Anglo-Saxons. Just before

the war over 700 million pounds comprised the annual crop of tea. As its

use became general the English put a tax upon its importation into Great

Britain or its colonies, with results here that we all know.

The cultivation of tea is restricted to those regions where there is a

large and frequent rainfall as well as a high temperature. It will not

grow in marshy places such as rice prefers, but needs light,

well-drained soils. The plant is propagated only from seeds which are

sown in nurseries, and the young plants set out in the tea fields about

four and a half feet apart each way. In two years they are bushes from

four to six feet tall when they are cut back to a foot high. The

increased vigor of the bush from this severe cutting back results in a

dense bush, from which leaves are plucked from the third year in small

quantity. Not until after the sixth or seventh year is there a normal

yield, which in an average year would be from four to five ounces of

finished tea. A poor yield of leaves would average about 400 pounds of

tea per acre, good yields going as high as a thousand pounds or even

more than that. The tea fields must be kept free of weeds, a tremendous

task in a moist tropical region, which demands cultivation about nine

times a year. The expense of properly setting out and maintaining a tea

plantation is therefore considerable.

The plucking of tea leaves is a fine art beginning with the starting of

new growth and continuing every few days until growth stops. In certain

regions growth is practically continuous and plucking also, but in most

regions the plant has an obvious resting period, when it is pruned back.

A properly cared for plant may last as long as forty or fifty years. In

a modern tea plantation the only part of the process of tea making that

involves handling is the plucking of the leaves, largely done by women

and children. The leaves are then spread on racks and allowed to partly

wither, after which they are put between rollers so as to crush the

tissue, thereby allowing the more rapid escape of water. After rolling,

all black teas are again spread out when oxidation of their juices

changes their color, but green teas omit this second spreading out and

sometimes even the first. The oxidation of black teas is produced by an

enzyme in the juice, in green tea this process is stopped by subjecting

the leaf at once to steam. This kills the enzyme but preserves the green

color of the leaf. In the black tea the enzyme is allowed to work for

two or three hours when the leaves are again slightly rolled to seal in

the juices and the leaves are then subjected to a current of air

progressively warmer until it reaches a temperature well above boiling

point. Once the temperature reaches about 240 degrees the process goes

on only for about twenty minutes when the leaves are perfectly dry and

crisp. The different sized leaves, buds, twigs, etc., are then sorted by

mechanical sifters and the finished tea is ready for packing. Experts

declare that there is no difference between broken and unbroken leaves,

and if there is any the flavor is probably better from broken leaves.

From the upper three leaves and their bud the finest teas are made, but

from adjoining plantations, even from the same plants at different

seasons or different pluckings, vastly different teas are often

produced. In different regions the process varies slightly in its

details, and different soils and culture undoubtedly affect the flavor

of tea, just as they do other crops. Some of these local conditions are

of great value, and the skillful handling of the leaves is as much of a

fine art as it is a science. Unlike wines, tea is best when fresh and

much of the romance of the sea centers around the China clippers which

made remarkably swift passages between China and England around the Cape

of Good Hope. With the opening of the Suez Canal competition for

increased speed became still more keen, but steam vessels took the

romance out of the trade. Much of the tea used in the United States

comes from Japan and does not go through London, which for over two

hundred years was the tea market of the world.

The thing for which we drink tea is an alkaloid in its leaves that is

pleasant to the taste and refreshing to the senses. It is released in

boiling water in a very few minutes, but if tea is allowed to stay in

water longer than this, tannic acid is also released. This is a

substance found in the bark of certain trees and is used in tanning

leather. As 10 per cent of the leaf of tea consists of this substance it

may readily be seen how easily improper methods of making tea will

render it not a refreshing and delightful beverage but an actual poison

to the digestive tract.

COFFEE

Like tea and chocolate, coffee also comes from a plant that can only be

grown in the tropics. Its original home was in or near Arabia and its

botanical name is _Coffea arabica_. There are, however, other species of

the genus that produce coffee, but _Coffea arabica_ is still its chief

source. The plant is

[Illustration: FIG. 100.--COFFEE

(_Coffea arabica_)

The coffee beans are contained in a red berry.]

now grown throughout the tropical world, but it does not thrive so well

along the coast as it does at elevations of a thousand feet or so,

where, in America at least, the best coffee is produced. The plant is a

shrub or small tree, usually not over 12 to 15 feet tall, with opposite

leaves and small tubular flowers, followed by a bright red berry, which

contains the coffee “beans.” The flowers and berries are in small

clusters in the axils of the leaves. Its use among the natives appears

to date from time immemorial, but the Crusaders did not know it, nor was

it introduced into Europe much before 1670. Its annual consumption is

now well over two billion pounds, nearly half of which is used in this

country. We use over ten pounds a year for each man, woman and child in

the country, or nearly ten times the per capita consumption in England.

Brazil produces over half the world’s total supply and consequently

controls the coffee markets of the world. The plant was first brought

into South America by the Dutch, who in 1718 brought it to Surinam. From

there it spread quickly into the West Indies and Central America.

The coffee berries are collected once a year and spread out to dry,

after which the two seeds are taken out. This is the simple method of

all the smaller plantation owners, but a modern Brazilian coffee

plantation follows a very different procedure. The berries are put in

tanks of water, or even conveyed by water flues from the fields, and

allowed to sink, which all mature berries will do. They are then

subjected to a pulping machine which after another water bath frees the

beans from the pulp. The former are still covered by a parchmentlike

skin which, after drying of the beans, is removed by rolling machines.

The coffee is then ready for export, but not for use until it is

roasted. This is a delicate operation not understood except by experts,

and should not be done until just before the coffee is ready to be used.

The average yield per plant is not over two pounds of finished coffee a

year, but larger yields from specially rich soils are known. The plant

is rather wide-spreading and not over five or six hundred specimens to

the acre can be grown.

The so-called Mocha coffee is obtained in Arabia, where Turkish and

Egyptian traders buy the crop on the plants and superintend its picking

and preparation, which is by the dry method. Not much of this ever

reaches the American markets, and the total amount of coffee now

produced in Arabia, its ancestral home, is negligible.

CHOCOLATE

Unlike tea and coffee, chocolate is a native of the New World and was

noticed by nearly all the first explorers. It grows wild in the hot,

steaming forests of the Orinoco and Amazon river basins, although it was

known in Mexico and Yucatan as a cultivated plant from very early times.

By far the largest supply still comes from tropical America, although it

is grown in the Dutch East Indies, Ceylon, and West Africa. It must have

been cultivated for many centuries before the discovery of America, as

scores of varieties are known, all derived from one species. This is

_Theobroma cacao_, and both the generic and specific names are

interesting. _Theobroma_ is Greek for god food, so highly did all

natives regard the plant, and _cacao_ is the Spanish adaptation for the

original Mexican name of the tree. Throughout Spanish or

Portuguese-speaking tropical America the tree is always spoken of as

_cacao_.

The chocolate tree is scarcely over twenty-five feet tall, has large

glossy leaves and bears rather small flowers directly on the branches or

trunk. This unusual mode of flowering, common in rain forests, results

in the large sculptured pods appearing as if artificially attached to

the plant. Each pod, which may be 6 to 9 inches long, contains about

fifty seeds--the chocolate bean of commerce.

When the beans first come out of the pod they are covered with a slimy

mucilaginous substance and are very bitter. To remove this the beans are

fermented or “sweated,” usually by burying in the earth or piled in

special houses for the purpose. After several days, sometimes as long as

two weeks, the beans lose the mucilage, most of their bitter flavor and

often change their color. After this they are dried and are ready for

roasting, which drives off still more of their bitter flavor. Chocolate

is made from the ground-up beans containing nearly all the oil, which

is the chief constituent, while cocoa is the same as chocolate with a

large part of the oil removed. As in tea and coffee, there is an

alkaloid in chocolate for which, with its fat, the beverage is mostly

used.

Very little chocolate is now collected from wild plants, and cacao

plantations are important projects in tropical agriculture. Because of

its many varieties, some nearly worthless, the business was rather

speculative until a few good sorts were perpetuated. Much valuable work

on this plant and the isolation of many good varieties has been done by

the Department of Agriculture in Jamaica, British West Indies. Cacao

plantations are usually in moist, low regions near the coast, preferably

protected from strong winds, to which the plant objects. The trees are

set about ten to fifteen feet apart each way and begin bearing after the

fifth or sixth year. The young plants are always shaded, often by

bananas, which are cut off as the trees mature. The tree will not thrive

unless the temperature is about 80 degrees or more and there should be

preferably 75 inches of rainfall a year, about twice that at New York.

Chocolate-growing regions are apt to be unhealthy for whites, and native

labor is practically always used. The business is very profitable, but

still somewhat speculative.

3. FIBERS

Not only do plants furnish us with food and drink, but most of our

clothing is made from plant products. There is annually produced twice

as much cotton as wool, while linen is made from the fibers in the stem

of the flax plant, which is also the source of linseed oil. Fibers occur

in many different parts of plants, but most often in the stem, or in

the bark of the stem. Some occur in the wood itself, as for instance

that in spruce wood, from which news paper is made. Others are found in

the attachments of the seed, such as cotton. Some are very coarse, such

as that of _Carex stricta_, a swamp sedge from which Crex rugs are

woven. Others like that of the leaves of the pineapple are as fine as

silk, and in the Philippine Islands where much pineapple fiber is

produced, some of the most beautiful undergarments and women’s wear are

made from it. Again, others, such as Manila hemp, furnish us with

cordage of great strength.

COTTON

It has been stated, perhaps a little rashly, that the value of the

cotton crop in our Southern States exceeds all other agricultural

products of the country. Whether this be true or no matters not, as

cotton production and manufacture is certainly one of the most important

industries of the world. Our own New England mills and those in

Lancashire total an enormous volume of manufactured cotton goods, and

what the stoppage of the cotton crop means to these industrial centers

was shown even so far back as the Civil War, when the “cotton riots” in

Lancashire were noised all over the world. Cotton is the most important

of all fiber plants.

There are several different kinds of commercially important cottons, and

perhaps dozens of others, all derived from the genus _Gossypium_, a

relative of our common garden mallows belonging to the _Malvaceæ_. By

far the most valuable is Sea Island cotton, derived from _Gossypium

barbadense_, which is probably a native of the West Indies, although

really wild plants are yet to be discovered. It is the kind, of which

scores of varieties are known in cultivation, that is grown mostly along

our southeastern coastal States. Next in value, but cultivated in

greater quantity because larger areas are suited to it, is _Gossypium

hirsutum_. The fiber is a little shorter, but the total amount of cotton

derived from this species probably exceeds that from all other kinds. It

is the cotton grown mostly in upland Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, and

the wild home of this species is supposed to be America, although it,

too, has never been found in the wild state. The third cotton plant is

_Gossypium herbaceum_, a native of India, and the origin of many

varieties now grown in that country. It has a shorter fiber and is worth

about one-third the price of Sea Island cotton. From Abyssinia and

neighboring regions comes the fourth important cotton plant, _Gossypium

arboreum_, differing from the others in being a small tree. All the

others are shrubby, while _G. herbaceum_ is merely a woody herb. These

different plants have been tried in the countries suited to cotton

raising, but, generally speaking, the chief crop from each is produced

in the country nearest the supposed wild home of it.

In all of them the fiber is really an appendage of the seeds, and each

pod as it splits open is found to be packed full of a white cottony mass

of these fibers with the seeds attached. These white masses of cotton,

or bolls, have to be picked by hand, as no really successful machine has

ever been found for this purpose. Women and children do a large part of

the picking, and the wastage due to careless picking is tremendous. The

whole value of the cotton crop depends upon an invention by Eli Whitney,

an American, of a machine to separate the cotton from its seed. This

“ginning” machine is now much perfected and, in America at least, is the

chief method of separation of fiber and seed. In India and for certain

other varieties a different type of machine, known as the Macarthy gin,

is employed. The latter is used in America also for some of the

long-fiber Sea Island cottons. With the baling of the cotton the work of

the grower is over and the product is ready for the manufacturers. The

resulting seed, after ginning, once little valued, is now an important

plant product, cottonseed oil, cattle feeds, soap, cottolene, fuel oil,

and fertilizers being derived from it. Its value in the United States

now totals millions of dollars annually.

In growing cotton in America seeds are sown in April, and the beautiful

yellow flowers with a red center bloom about June or July, followed in

August by the pod. This splits open and is ready for picking by

September and October. The plants are grown in rows four feet apart and

are set one foot apart in the row. Clean cultivation is absolutely

necessary, and in first-class plantations all weeds are kept out. The

plant needs a rich deep soil.

HEMP AND CORDAGE

There are a variety of plants which furnish products known as hemp, but

commercially only three are of much importance, the plant universally

known under that name, the Manila hemp, and sisal. All of them are used

chiefly for cordage.

The hemp of the ancients is a tall annual related to our nettles, with

rough leaves, and a native of Asia. For centuries an intoxicating drink

was made from the herbage of this plant, and this with the narcotic

hashish, which is made from a resin exuded by the stems, obscured the

fact that _Cannabis sativa_ is a very valuable cordage plant. The coarse

fibers are found in the stem, and these are cut and retted, the retting

or rotting process separating the fibers from the waste portions of the

stem. The fibers are so long and coarse that only cordage, ropes, and a

rough cloth are made from them, but enormous quantities are raised for

this purpose, especially in Europe. As hashish is now a forbidden

product in many countries, due to its dangerous narcotic effects, the

hemp plant is more cultivated for fiber than for the narcotic. But in

the olden days hashish had a tremendous vogue in the Orient and was

known at the time of the Trojan wars, about 1500 B.C. Fiber from the

plant was almost unknown to the Hebrews, and it was not until the

beginning of the thirteenth century that it came into general use. It is

now probably as important as sisal, but not as Manila hemp, the most

valuable of all cordage plants. The hemp is diœcious and the female

plants are taller and mature later than the male. Two cuttings are

therefore necessary in each field.

The Manila hemp is derived from a banana (_Musa textilis_), that is a

native of tropical Asia and is much grown in the Philippines. While the

fruits of this plant are of very little or no value, the fiber from the

long leafstalk is the best cordage material known. Also the finer fibers

near the center of the stalk are made up into fabrics, which are rarely

seen here, but are said to be almost silky in texture. As a cordage

plant, however, _Musa textilis_ is now easily the most important, and

from a commercial point of view the Philippine Islands is the only

region to produce it in quantity. It has been tried with not much

success in India and the West Indies. Methods of extracting the fibers

are still very primitive, as it is nearly all scratched out by natives

with saw-toothed knives made for the purpose. After the fleshy part of

the leafstalk has been separated from the fiber this is merely put out

on racks to dry. The finished product has so much value for large cords

and ropes that the fiber makes up about half the total exports of the

Philippine Islands. Its great strength may be judged from the fact that

a rope made from it, only about one inch thick, will stand a strain of

over four thousand pounds. No other fiber is anywhere near this in

strength and yet of sufficient length to be of use as cordage. There are

still thousands of acres suitable for its culture in the Philippines,

but the extraction of the fiber awaits some inventive genius who will

make a machine for that purpose. Many have tried, but so far the

primitive scratching out by natives is the only method in use and it is

admitted that it wastes nearly one-third of the fiber. The so-called

Manila or brown paper is often made from old and worn-out ropes of

Manila hemp, but, as in the case of cordage itself, adulteration with

cheaper fibers is common.

From Yucatan, the Bahamas, and some other regions of tropical America

comes the most valuable American cordage plant, known as sisal. The

fiber is extracted from the thick coarse leaves of a century plant,

known as _Agave sisalina_ or _Agave rigida_, which looks not unlike the

century plant so common in cultivation. The plant belongs to the

Amaryllis family and is native in tropical America. Thousands of acres

are planted to sisal in Yucatan and a machine for scratching out the

fiber is in general use. The plant produces each year a crown of eight

or ten leaves from three to five feet in height, each tipped with a

stout prickle. Unlike the common century plant of our greenhouses there

are no marginal prickles on the leaves of the sisal. After extraction

the fiber is stretched out on racks to dry and is then ready for

manufacture into rope.

JUTE

During the late war the Germans were reported to be sending flour and

sugar to their armies pressed into large bricks for the want of bags to

ship them in the ordinary way. Gunny sacks, or jute bags, as they are

more often called, are made literally by the hundreds of millions, as

practically all sugar, coffee, grains and feeds, and fertilizers are

shipped in them. Jute is a tall herb, a native of the Old World tropics,

but suitable for cultivation in many other tropical regions. Practically

all the world’s supply now comes from India, probably because of the

cheapness of labor rather than any peculiar virtue of the soil or

climate of that country. The plant has been experimentally grown in Cuba

with entire success, but labor conditions made cheap production of the

fiber impossible.

The jute plant, known as _Corchorus capsularis_ or _C. olitorius_, grows

approximately six to nine feet tall and is an annual, often branching

only near the top. They are not very distantly related to our common

linden tree. At the proper maturity the whole plant is harvested and the

stems are tied into bundles ready for the retting process. Of all fiber

processes this is the most difficult, largely because no machine or

chemical has yet been found to

[Illustration: FIG. 101.--THE JUTE PLANT

The fiber is mostly derived from _Corchorus capsularis_ and from

_Corchorus olitorius_.]

extract the fiber of jute, or flax, and this is accomplished by placing

the stems in water, which rots out the fleshy part of the stem, leaving

the fiber. Some notion of the difficulty of this task in such plants as

jute is gained by realizing that over twelve million bales of finished

fiber are produced each year, and that the retting may take from two

days to a month. The retting process is aided by certain organisms of

decay in the water, by the temperature, and by some other factors not

yet understood. The process is allowed to go on only long enough to

separate flesh from fiber, which makes frequent inspection of the

bundles in the filthy water an absolute necessity. At the proper time

the natives are able to split off the bark, which contains the fiber,

from the stem, and while standing up to the waist in the water, he picks

or dashes off with water the remaining impurities. The fiber is then

dried on racks and subsequently, under enormous pressure, packed in

bales of four hundred pounds each. An average crop would be about two

and one-half bales from an acre of jute, so that in India there must be

considerably over five million acres devoted to the cultivation of the

plant. While for many years this tremendous output of fiber was sent to

England for manufacture, power looms were set up in India about the

middle of the last century. There are now over three-quarters of a

million spindles there, and some jute is sent to the United States for

manufacture here.

Next to cotton jute is probably the most important fiber plant in the

world. For hundreds of thousands of people in India and in England it is

the only source of livelihood. To the inventor who can eliminate or

reduce the costly retting process of jute, or of flax, which goes

through essentially the same operation, there is waiting a golden

future, for it is largely the cheapness of labor and willingness of its

natives to stand in the retting pools that has made India the jute

region of the world.

Lack of space forbids mention of the many other fiber plants, some of

which, like flax, are of large importance. Their fibers are used in a

variety of ways and are found in different parts of the plant. A few of

these, together with the names of the plants and the regions where they

are native, are as follows:

NAME OF PLANT PRODUCT NATIVE

Bowstring hemp. Bowstrings and Tropical Africa

_Sansevieria_, several cordage. and Asia.

species.

Coconut palm. Coir. Tropical America (?)

_Cocos nucifera._

Flax. _Linum usitatissimum._ Linen. Europe and Asia.

Kapok. Kapok, for stuffing. India.

_Eriodendron anfractuosum._

New Zealand flax. Cordage. New Zealand.

_Phormium tenax._

Paper mulberry. Paper pulp in Japan.

_Broussonetia papyrifera._ Japan.

Pita. _Bromelia Pinguin._ Pita fiber, fabrics. Tropical America.

Queensland hemp. Jute substitute. Tropical regions.

_Sida rhombifolia._

Raffia. _Raphia ruffa._ Cloth and for tying. Madagascar.

Ramie. _Boehmeria nivea._ Ramie cloth. Tropical Asia.

Rattan cane. Rattan, cordage, India.

_Calamus rotang._ and coarse cloth.

Rush. _Juncus effusus._[2] Matting in Japan. North temperate

regions.

Sedge. _Carex stricta._ Rugs and mattings. Northern North

America.

Spruce. _Picea rubens_, Paper pulp. Northern North

_canadensis_, etc. America.

Willows. _Salix_, many Basketry. Temperate regions

_species_. mostly.

No mention can be made here of the hundreds of fiber plants used by the

natives of various parts of the world, some of them probably having

great commercial possibilities. The extraction of these fibers by

machinery or chemically will open up a large commerce in such plant

products, the value of which is now unsuspected or ignored. While the

value of cotton, jute, and Manila hemp is reckoned in the hundreds of

millions, some of these native fibers are found in plants whose wild

supply is almost inexhaustible, and some of which are quite as capable

of cultivation as the better known fiber plants. Few fields of inquiry

offer greater possibilities to the economic botanist than fibers.

4. THE STORY OF RUBBER

Along the north coast of Haiti, particularly near Cap Haiti and Puerto

Plata, there are scattered a few plantations devoted to rubber growing;

and it is not without interest that Columbus on his first voyage landed

at about this precise spot in December, 1492, and found the natives

playing a game of ball made of rubber. He wrote: “The balls were of the

gum of a tree, and although large, were lighter and bounced better than

the wind balls of Castile.” This is apparently the first notice of the

use of rubber, a substance now of world-wide importance, and derived

from many other plants than the tree mentioned by Columbus. This is

_Castilla elastica_, a native of certain islands of the West Indies and

the adjacent mainland, and a relation of our common mulberry.

For over three centuries rubber, or caoutchouc as it was often called,

was only of very casual use before the process of vulcanizing was

discovered by Charles Goodyear, an American, in 1839. This combination

of rubber with sulphur transformed a material much subject to heat and

cold, and of almost no manufacturing value, into one from which hundreds

of articles of daily use are now manufactured. Previous to this it had

been used mostly, and in fact almost exclusively, as a waterproofing

material for cloth, a process much developed by the firm of Charles

Macintosh & Co., who appear to have taken out the first patent for a

waterproofing process in 1791, in England. The rubber tree found by

Columbus is still grown in considerable quantities and is a valuable

source of rubber, but it has been greatly overshadowed by a Brazilian

tree which now produces over two-thirds of all the rubber in the world.

[Illustration: FIG. 102.--BRAZILIAN OR PARA RUBBER (_Hevea

brasiliensis_)

Native in the Amazon region, but now much grown in the East Indies.]

This Brazilian tree, a native of the rich rain forests of the Amazon, is

_Hevea brasiliensis_, and a relative of our common spurges of the

roadsides and of the beautiful crotons of the florist, all belonging to

the family _Euphorbiaceæ_. The first important notice of this rubber

appears to be by the astronomer C. M. de la Condamine, who was on an

astronomical trip to the Amazon in 1735. He described _Para_ rubber, as

it has since been called, and by 1827 the export of this gum had grown

to 31 tons a year. In 1910 Brazil exported over 38,000 tons, nearly all

of which was collected from wild trees. After the discovery of

vulcanization the demand for all kinds of rubber increased by leaps and

bounds and it became obvious that the wild trees, although tapped

regularly, would not supply all of the necessary amount. For years the

Brazilian Government protested the export of seeds or other means of

growing the plant out of the Amazon, but in 1876 H. A. Wickam chartered

a steamer and loaded her with 70,000 seeds of para rubber trees and some

crude rubber, and had the ship passed by the Brazilian port authorities

as loaded with “botanical specimens.” He safely transported the cargo to

the Kew Gardens, London, where only about 4 per cent of the seeds ever

germinated. From there the young plants were sent to India, where now,

and in the Straits Settlements and the adjacent islands, there are huge

plantations of para rubber. From the wildest speculation in rubber

shares on the London Stock Exchange, which followed the successful

introduction of the plant into British possessions, the industry has now

settled down to be one of the most profitable in plant products of the

East.

The rubber of both _Hevea_ and _Castilla_ is produced from the milky

juice or sap of the trees and is actually a wound response. As the trees

are tapped the _latex_, as the milky juice is called, runs out of the

wound and upon reaching the air coagulates. This material is removed and

a new wound made, a process which is repeated for several years. There

is still work to be done upon the problem of how often plantation trees

should be tapped to get the greatest flow of latex without injuring the

tree, but in many plantations it is done every day or every other day in

the season, some rubber planters allowing a resting period during leaf

fall, others again tapping almost continually. The actual wound is made

by removing just enough bark to induce a flow of latex, but not until

the wound is completely healed, a process taking from four to six

years, can that particular part of the bark be cut again. With almost

daily tappings the problem of finding fresh pieces of bark into which

the cut may safely be made has been developed into a fine science. In

the wild trees of Brazil it is still done by natives, probably rather

wastefully. Rubber plantations in the tropical regions of Asia now total

over a million acres, as compared to only slightly over 200,000 acres in

the American tropics and from all other non-Asiatic sources. Of this

probably 100,000 acres are in Africa. At the present time nearly half

the world’s supply of rubber comes from these plantations, the balance

still coming from Brazil.

There are two other rubber-producing plants, neither of which are as

important as _Hevea_ and _Castilla_. One is the common rubber plant so

much grown as a house plant and said to be much cherished for that

purpose in Brooklyn. It is a kind of fig tree, known as _Ficus

elastica_, a native of India and the source of India rubber. It was used

for years, before the days of vulcanization, mostly for lead-pencil

erasers. Thousands of acres of it in India were recently destroyed to

make room for _Hevea_, although it still produces a respectable amount

of rubber, inferior, however, to _Hevea_ and _Castilla_. In Mexico a new

source of rubber is the guayule rubber plant, a small shrub native of

the drier parts of the Mexican uplands. It does not produce latex, as

practically all other rubber plants do, but particles of rubber are

found directly in its tissues, mostly in the bark. While of some

importance, this shrub, known as _Parthenium argentatum_, a member of

the _Compositæ_ or daisy family, is not likely to become a dangerous

rival of either Para or _Castilla_ rubber. Wild sources of guayule

rubber are already reported as diminishing rapidly, so that its

permanent success will depend upon cultivation. At least a score of

other plants are known to produce rubber of a kind, but none of them

have yet been much developed. From most plants with a milky juice, such

as dogbane or spurge, rubber of some sort can usually be recovered. The

production of this substance is directly due to a response of the plant

to wounds, and there are still great fields of research necessary on

this phase of plant activity, upon which a great industry has already

been built.

5. DRUGS

Nearly all the drugs and medicines of importance are of vegetable

origin, and from the days of Theophrastus the study of plants as

possible medicines has been one of the chief phases of botanical

research. In the early days all that was known about plants was learned

by men interested in medicine, and some of their quaint old books are

interesting relics of a bygone day. At present, pharmacognosy, or the

science of medicinal plant products, is a highly developed specialty

taught in medical and pharmacy schools. And yet the greatest medical

college in this country has recently issued instructions to its staff of

doctors and nurses to pay particular attention to “old wives’ remedies,”

most of which consist of decoctions of leaves and other parts of plants.

They have done this because all the knowledge of the scientists

regarding medicinal plants has its origin in the habit of simple people

turning to their local plants for a cure. The accumulation of the ages,

aided and guided by the scientist, has resulted in the wonderful things

that can now be done to the human body through the different drugs,

nine-tenths of which are of plant origin.

There is almost no part of a plant that, in some species at least, has

not been found to contain the various acids, alkaloids, oils, essences,

and so forth, which make up the chief medicinal or, as the pharmacists

call it, the active principle of plants. In certain of them the most

violent poisons are produced, such as the poison hemlock which killed

Socrates, and the deadly nightshade. And again the unripe pod of one

plant produces a milky juice so dangerous that traffic in it is

forbidden in all civilized countries, and yet later the seeds from that

matured pod are sold by the thousands of pounds to be harmlessly

sprinkled on cakes and buns by the confectioners. Earlier in this book

it was said that plants are chemical laboratories, and nowhere has this

alchemy been carried to such a pitch of perfection as in the hundreds of

drugs produced by different plants. Reference to special books on that

subject should be made by those interested, as only a few of our most

important drug plants can be mentioned here.

QUININE

The Spanish viceroy of Peru, whose wife, the Countess del Chinchón, was

dangerously ill of a fever in that country about 1638, succeeded through

the aid of some Jesuit priests in curing the malady, with a medicine

which these priests had gotten from the natives. It was a decoction from

the bark of a tree, and its fame soon spread throughout the world as

Peruvian bark. Even in those days malaria was the curse of the white man

in tropical regions, and since then it is hardly too much to say that

the discovery of this drug has made possible for white colonists the

retention of thousands of square miles of tropical country that without

it would in all probability be unfit for occupancy. To the natives, too,

quinine has been one of the greatest blessings, and in some of the

remote regions of the tropics the writer has found quinine more useful

than dollars in getting help from fever-ridden natives, too poor and too

remote from civilization to get the drug.

For more than a hundred and fifty years after the discovery of Peruvian

bark it was always taken as a liquid, usually mixed with port, and an

extremely noxious and bitter drink it made. The fine white powder which

we now use in tasteless pellets or pills has made the drug even more

useful than before.

The trees from which the bark is used all belong to the genus

_Cinchona_, named for the first distinguished patient to benefit by it,

and belong to the _Rubiaceæ_ or madder family. There are at least four

or five different species. For many years Peru and near-by states were

the only source of the bark, and the English became convinced that the

great trade in the drug would exterminate the tree, so in 1880 they

introduced the plant into India. These cinchona plantations now provide

most of the world’s demand, and some idea of what that means may be

gleaned from the fact that in Ceylon alone over fifteen million pounds

of the drug are produced annually. In India itself the plantations are

largely government owned and quinine is sold in the post offices at a

very low rate. In cinchona plantations strips of the bark are removed,

and after a proper period of healing, the process is repeated. It takes

about eight years before it is safe to begin cutting the bark.

ACONITE

Most doctors use aconite for various purposes and it is mentioned here

chiefly as illustrating a common characteristic of many medicinal

plants. The whole plant is deadly poisonous, and in the root there

appears to be a concentration of this poisonous substance, which makes

the plant one of the most dangerous known. All of the drug aconite is

derived from _Aconitum Napellus_, a monkshood, belonging to the

buttercup family. It is a perennial herb with beautiful spikes of

purple-blue flowers, not unlike a larkspur, and is a native of temperate

regions of the Old World. A related Indian species has been used for

probably thousands of years by the natives. They poison their arrows

with it and so deadly is the drug that a tiger pricked by such an arrow

will die within a few minutes. It is conceded to be the most powerful

poison in India. Numerous accidents have resulted in Europe from

careless collectors of the roots of horseradish, who sometimes get

aconite roots mixed with that condiment, usually with fatal results.

So many other plants are violently poisonous, and yet yield the most

valuable drugs, that the greatest care has to be used in their

collection and preparation. The habit of many children of eating wayside

berries should be discouraged, as some of our most innocent-looking

roadside plants are actually deadly if their fruits or foliage are

eaten. Fortunately only a very few plants are poisonous to the touch,

notably poison ivy and poison sumac, and some of their relatives.

OPIUM AND MORPHINE

Almost no plant product has caused more misery and relieved more pain

than the juice of the unripe pod of the common garden poppy, _Papaver

somniferum_. From it opium is extracted, the chief constituent of which

is morphine. If tea can be said to have precipitated our war of

independence, opium was indirectly the cause of the opening of China to

the western world. The degrading effects of opium had become so

notorious that the Chinese in 1839 destroyed large stocks of it, mostly

the property of British merchants, and prohibited further importations.

In the subsequent negotiations which ended in war, China was opened up

to trade. No civilized country now openly permits the sale of opium,

although there is still a good deal of it used in practically all parts

of the world. The effects of lassitude, subsequent ecstasy, and

stupefaction are due to an alkaloid, the continued use of which forms a

drug habit of serious consequences. Parts of China, Turkey, Persia, and

Siam are said to be still large users of opium which is chewed, or more

often smoked. Until comparatively recently fifteen out of every twenty

men in some of these countries were regular users of the drug. The

legitimate use of morphine by physicians has done more than almost

anything else, with the possible exception of cocaine, to relieve

suffering, and there is consequently a considerable trade in the drug.

The home of this poppy is unknown, as it has been cultivated from the

earliest days. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew it and the Egyptians

grew it for opium. It is still grown in India and China, where,

notwithstanding vigorous governmental measures, there is a large opium

consumption. After maturity the pods of the poppy, from whose milky

juice in its earlier stages the drug is obtained, produce many seeds.

From these an oil is pressed which is widely used as a cooking oil in

the East, and is perfectly harmless. The seeds are also used as bird

seed and by confectioners.

COCAINE

[Illustration: FIG. 103.--COCAINE PLANT

(_Erythroxylon Coca_)

Native in northern South America. The fresh leaves of this are used as a

valuable but harmless stimulant by the natives.]

In the northern part of South America the Peruvians and some of their

neighbors were discovered by early explorers to be chewing the leaves of

a native shrub, apparently with much profit and no evil after effects.

It served them much as the betel nut does to the natives of India and

other regions of the tropical East. With scanty or no food this

apparently harmless intoxicant will carry both men and women over

periods of severe fatigue. The shrub bearing these leaves is not over

four or five feet tall and has bright green foliage and small white

flowers.

Quite different in its effects has been the drug which has been

extracted from this plant, known as _Erythroxylon Coca_. Far from being

a beneficial and harmless stimulant, cocaine is now one of the drug

evils of our time. Its use, outside that prescribed by physicians, is

forbidden practically everywhere, but its consumption in this country,

aside from its great and legitimate use as a relief from pain, is still

very large.

The number of drug plants is legion, so large in fact, that volumes have

been filled with descriptions and notes about them. A few of the most

important, omitting those already mentioned, are listed below:

DRUG DERIVED FROM THE NATIVE

Betel nut. Seed of Areca Catechu. India.

Calamus. Rootstock of Acorus Calamus. Eastern U. S. and

in Asia.

Sarsaparilla. Roots of various species of Tropical America.

Smilax.

Saffron. Stigmas of Crocus sativus. Europe.

Arrowroot. Rootstock of Maranta arundinacea. Tropical America.

Cubeb. Unripe fruit of Piper Cubeba. Old World tropics.

Creosote. Wood of Fagus americana North America and

and F. sylvatica. Europe.

Hydrastis. Rootstock of Hydrastis canadensis. Eastern N. America.

Star Anise. Fruit of Illicium anisatum. Southern China.

Camphor. All parts of Cinnamomum China and Japan.

Camphora.

Witch-hazel. Leaves and bark of Hamamelis Eastern N. America.

virginiana.

Licorice. Underground parts of Glycyrrhiza Europe.

glabra.

Cascara Bark of Rhamnus Purshianus. Western United

Sagrada. States.

Ginseng. Rootstock of Panax quinquefolium. Eastern N. America

and Asia.

Wintergreen. Leaves of Gaultheria procumbens. Eastern N. America.

Nux vomica. Seeds of Strychnos Nux India.

vomica.

Digitalis. Leaves of Digitalis purpurea. Europe.

Ipecac. Root of Uragoga Ipecacuanha. Brazil.

Castor oil. Seeds of Ricinus communis. Africa or India.

6. THE STORY OF TOBACCO

Not until 1492 was the use of tobacco known to the Europeans, when

Columbus found the natives of Cuba and Santo Domingo both chewing and

smoking it. Subsequent Spanish explorers of the mainland found its use

almost universal both in North and South America. It had apparently been

used there for countless ages, as smoking it formed part of the most

solemn ceremonial rites both of the natives’ religion and their

political gatherings. Brought to England in 1586 by Ralph Lane and Sir

Francis Drake, the smoking of tobacco spread with the great speed that

such a comfortable habit might be expected to exhibit. Notwithstanding

violent opposition by certain priests and physicians and other more

intolerant opponents of the weed, its use increased throughout the

world. To-day, in spite of our modern anti-tobacco fanatics, over two

billion pounds are produced annually, and in the United States there is

a per capita consumption of over five pounds per year, greater than any

country in the world, save Belgium.

All of the many different forms in which tobacco is used are derived

from the leaves of _Nicotiana tabacum_, or perhaps one or two other

species of the genus _Nicotiana_, which belongs to the _Solanaceæ_ or

potato family. There are many other species, all natives of the New

World, but the actual home of the tobacco plant is in some doubt. As in

so many cultivated plants, which have been grown for countless ages,

wild specimens are practically unknown. The plant seeds freely and

consequently frequently escapes from cultivation, so that in many parts

of America apparently wild plants are to be found that

[Illustration: TEMPERATE FOREST ON GARDINER’S ISLAND, LONG ISLAND, N. Y.

Note the open vista through the trees, and lack of undergrowth, due to

the forest canopy, and contrast with the profusion of the under

vegetation in the rain forest (_Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic Garden._)]

[Illustration: RAIN FOREST. Root-climbing lianas on a tree stem in the

south Mexican rain forest (State of Chiapas). Below: _Sarcinanthus

utilis_, with bipartite leaves. Farther up: _Araceæ_. Highest of all:

epiphytic shrubs are visible near leaves of _Araceæ_. Around the stem,

the cord-like aerial roots of _Araceæ_ on the branches of the tree. (_A

photograph by G. Karsten._) (_After Schimper. Courtesy of Brooklyn

Botanic Garden._)]

trace their origin to cultivated plants. The antiquity of its culture

may be gauged by the fact that in the most ancient Aztec tombs

elaborately carved tobacco pipes have been found.

The plant is grown as a field crop in rows from one and one-half to

three feet apart and set about fifteen inches apart in the row. From the

time the seed is sown until the harvesting of the leaves is usually

three or four months, during which the plants demand the best of

culture. In the United States thousands of acres of tobacco are now

grown under cheesecloth shades, an expensive process which is more than

compensated for by the improved flavor.

Once the tobacco is cut there begin chemical changes in the leaves that

are of great importance to its subsequent flavor and use. These are

aided or induced first by a process of curing, which is accomplished by

suspending the wilted leaves in the sun, a process that has been

practically abandoned for curing by artificial heat. The leaves are hung

in a building where slow fires bring the temperature up to 150 degrees

F., which is maintained for a few days. The cured tobacco is then

gathered into small bundles which are stacked or packed so closely that

fermentation begins, often generating a temperature of 150 degrees F.

The bundles are then reshifted and the process allowed to start again,

which may be done several times, depending upon the quality of the leaf,

flavor desired, and commercial requirements. Enzymes and bacteria play a

large part in the fermentation process and inoculation of poor grades of

tobacco with the organisms of finer grades has been tried. After

fermentation has been stopped practically all tobaccos are aged for at

least two years, some for longer periods.

In Cuba, where its use was first noticed, the finest tobacco in the

world is still produced, notably in the province of Pinar del Rio. It is

still something of a mystery as to what peculiar combination of soil,

climate, or handling the unquestionable superiority of the Cuban leaf is

due. For one thing it is grown in the open, without shade, and is never

cured by artificial heat. Nor is the very excellent cigarette tobacco of

Turkey ever artificially cured. But attempts to imitate the conditions

under which these finest grades of tobacco are produced outside Cuba and

Turkey have never been really successful, so that those countries have

practical monopolies on the production of the finest cigars and

cigarettes. The weed is cultivated nearly throughout the world, even

Canada producing considerable quantities, but the best kinds and

greatest production is in warmer regions. It is second only to the sugar

crop in Cuba, and the United States produces over one-third the world’s

total supply. Immense quantities are grown, however, in India and

Sumatra, and in the Philippines.

Perhaps the most unusual and localized conditions of climate and

subsequent handling are found in the production of perique tobacco. All

the world’s supply is grown on a ridge at Grand Point, in the parish of

St. James, Louisiana. The leaves are subjected to great pressure and the

expressed juice, after oxidation, is reabsorbed by the leaves after the

pressure is removed. The peculiar flavor is apparently due to this and

to the damp climate. Perique is now used throughout the world as an

ingredient of the better kinds of pipe tobacco.

The diseases and breeding of different strains of tobacco are commercial

factors of tremendous importance to the industry. With a yearly value of

well over two billions of dollars, the crop is one of the most important

plant products, outside of foods. The capital invested in America alone

is over five hundred million dollars.

7. SPICES

As we have seen many of our most valuable food plants are natives of and

are now cultivated in temperate regions, but “sugar and spice and all

things nice” mostly come from the tropics. What we usually know as

spices such as nutmeg, vanilla, ginger, mace, cloves, allspice, and

cinnamon are practically all confined to the tropical regions in or near

the East Indies, only vanilla being of American origin. The trade in

these spices has been for hundreds of years a practical monopoly in the

hands of Dutch and British traders, and for hundreds of years before

that the caravans from the Far East came laden with precious freight

from the then mysterious country beyond the Mediterranean.

VANILLA

The long pods of two climbing orchids native in Central America and the

West Indies furnished for many years our only supplies of this flavoring

extract. But in 1891 a process of making vanilline chemically from sugar

was perfected so that the vanilla trade is not what it was years ago.

Vanilla planters, however, have been able to keep up the price of the

plant product because of its unquestionable superiority over the

manufactured article. But the latter has enormously increased the

general use of vanilla, while the total plant output scarcely exceeds

four hundred tons a year. Nearly all this is grown in the Old World

tropics, as tropical America, where the plant is common enough as a

forest orchid, has not greatly developed its culture.

In both species, known as _Vanilla pompona_ and _Vanilla planifolia_,

the orchid has flat leaves and a fleshy climbing stem that hugs tree

trunks or other supports, always in the dense shade of the tropical

forests. It needs a hot moist climate, but if there be too much rain as

the pods are ripening they drop off, so that only certain localities are

suited to its cultivation. Various islands are apparently better suited

to the plant than the mainland, Tahiti producing alone nearly half the

world’s supply. The species most cultivated is _Vanilla planifolia_,

which came originally from southern Mexico, where considerable

plantations are still maintained. The pods are about as thick as a thumb

or finger and from five to seven inches long, and yellow when ripe. The

ripening process takes several months and when completed the pod is

still without the delicious fragrance for which it is famous. Curing by

dipping in boiling water or by fermentation, a very delicate process

requiring long experience, brings out the flavor. In some regions the

pods are plunged into ashes and left there until they begin to shrivel

when they are cleaned off, rubbed with olive oil, and tied at their

lower end to prevent splitting. Still another process demanding that the

pods be plunged in rum is followed, but only in limited degree, owing to

the expense. In all of them the result is the same--that of inducing

chemical changes in the pod which are responsible for its subsequent

flavor.

NUTMEG

[Illustration: FIG. 104.--NUTMEG (_Myristica fragrans_)

A native of southeastern tropical Asia. The fruit, somewhat enlarged

here, consists of an inner part, the nutmeg. Around this is a “splendid

crimson network” which is removed by hand and forms the mace of

commerce.]

A small tree of the tropical regions of eastern Asia, known as

_Myristica fragrans_, or perhaps better as _Myristica moschata_, is the

source of both nutmeg and mace which come from different parts of the

same plant. The genus contains over one hundred species, belongs to the

_Myristicaceæ_, and is scattered all over the Malayan region. Almost

none of its relatives, however, have the fragrance of the nutmeg and

none is used as a spice. Both nutmeg and mace have been known in Europe

only from about 1195 A.D., when in a poem about the entry of the Emperor

Henry VI into Rome, the streets were described as being perfumed by the

burning of nutmegs and other fragrant plants. It was not until the rise

of the Dutch, who burned large stores of it at Amsterdam in 1790 in

order to keep up a falling price, that nutmegs came into general use.

The trees are now chiefly cultivated in the Dutch East Indies, a small

fraction of the supply coming from the West Indies, which is alleged to

be an inferior product.

The trees produce male and female flowers, usually on different plants,

but sometimes on the same one, yellow in color and aromatic. From the

females are developed the fruit which is a drupe about two inches long

with a thick fleshy husk which splits upon ripening. The seed inside is

the nutmeg, but from its base is an outgrowth which covers the nut with

a “splendid crimson network.” This covering or network is removed by

hand and forms the mace of commerce.

CLOVES

In the family _Myrtaceæ_, which contains hundreds of plants from all

over the world, mostly all shrubs and trees of tropical regions,

however, there is a large genus, _Eugenia_. From the unopened flower

buds of _Eugenia caryophyllata_, a small tree native only on a few

islands in the Moluccas, the widely used spice known as cloves is

derived. It appears to have been known to the Chinese at least two

hundred years before Christ, and was regularly imported into Europe from

the eighth century by caravans. Not until the Dutch began to import it

by ship did it become cheap enough to have general use, but in 1609 a

Dutch vessel reached England with over a hundred thousand pounds on

board.

While the tree is of very local distribution, it has been introduced on

a considerable scale into Penang, Zanzibar, and even to the West Indies.

Trees are set out thirty feet apart each way, and in from four to eight

years, depending on the locality, they begin to flower. After the full

bearing stage is reached, a tree will produce from five to seven pounds

of dried cloves, an average crop being about 375 pounds to an acre. The

flowers are produced in small clusters not over an inch and a half long,

so that hand picking is the only method of collection. As the buds

become blood red they are usually in a fit state for picking, after

which they are either sun dried or, more rarely, by artificial heat.

Nothing further is done to them before shipment. Zanzibar and Pemba now

produce more cloves than nearly all the rest of the world put together.

Oil of cloves, largely used in perfumery, is pressed out of the dried

cloves.

[Illustration: FIG. 105.--CLOVE PLANT

A native of only a few islands in the Moluccas. Cloves consist of the

unopened flower buds of _Eugenia caryophyllata_.]

CINNAMON

One of the commonest trees in the lowland parts of Ceylon is _Cinnamomum

zeylanicum_, a tree of the family _Lauraceæ_, which also contains our

native sassafras. From the bark of this tree is derived cinnamon, and

from a related Japanese tree, _Cinnamomum Camphora_, camphor is taken.

Practically all the _Lauraceæ_ are aromatic shrubs or trees, most of

them tropical. Ceylon was occupied by the Portuguese in 1536 for the

cinnamon then growing on it, which they forced the native king to supply

them. Later the Dutch completely controlled the cinnamon, often burning

it in Holland to keep up the price. The British, who took Ceylon in

1796, made a government monopoly of cinnamon, but subsequently turned

the plantations over to private interests. The tree is now grown on an

extensive scale, not only in Ceylon, but in Java and India. Ceylon still

controls the cinnamon market, however.

[Illustration: FIG. 106.--CINNAMON

A common tree of Ceylon (_Cinnamomum zeylanicum_). From the related

_Cinnamomum Camphora_ camphor is derived.]

While the wild cinnamon trees reach considerable heights, the cultivated

plants are cut so regularly that they almost always throw up a lot of

young shoots from the roots, and it is the bark of these that furnishes

the spice. When the bark is fit for peeling, the natives cut off the

shoots, and strip the bark from them by hand, but with a specially

constructed knife. After removal the bark is kept moist and in a day or

two the outer skin is scraped off and the bark stretched over a stick,

to form the familiar pipes or quills of cinnamon. These are graded, cut

to uniform length, and after drying are ready for shipment. All of this

is as yet hand work.

Other spice plants and condiments are of wide use, but can scarcely be

mentioned in detail here. A few of the more important are the following:

NAME DERIVED FROM THE NATIVE

Allspice or pimento Unripe fruits of West Indies.

_Pimenta officinalis_

Cassia bark Bark of _Cinnamomum Cassia_ Eastern Asia.

Black pepper Fruit of _Piper nigrum_ Tropical Asia.

Cardamoms Fruit of _Elettaria Cardamomum_ Malabar.

Capsicum or Cayenne Fruits of species of _Capsicum_ Tropical Asia.

pepper

Coriander Fruits of _Coriandrum sativum_ Europe.

Cumin Fruits of _Cuminum Cyminum_ Mediterranean

region.

Dill Fruits of _Peucedanum graveolens_ Europe and

northern Africa.

Ginger Rootstock of (?)

_Zingiber officinalis_

Turmeric Rootstock of _Curcuma longa_ Tropical Asia.

Mustard Seed of _Brassica nigra_ and _alba_ Old World.

Thyme Foliage of _Thymus vulgaris_ Southern Europe.

Caraway Fruit of _Carum Carui_ Europe.

Caper Seeds of _Capparis spinosa_ Southern Europe

and Asia.

This brief review of what the plant world provides us with in the shape

of foods, beverages, fibers, drugs, rubber, spices, and tobacco, does

not begin to tell us what man’s debt to plants really is. Thousands of

plants, used by natives all over the world, may well provide future

generations with unsuspected sources of plant products. No mention has

been made of timbers nor all the forest products, except paper, which in

the aggregate total an enormous sum. Perhaps no better idea of the

tremendous value of plants, of the absorbing interest their utilization

has always had for man, can be gained than to refer the reader to

incomparably the best book on the subject, so far as tropical plants

are concerned. Sir George Watt, in his “Dictionary of the Economic

Products of India,” a book of several volumes, most of which deals with

plants, has left an imperishable record of man’s struggles to tame the

wild plants of the forest to his needs.

A few more economic plants not yet noted are listed below, and with this

our account of plants as they are used by man must close:

PLANT PRODUCT DERIVED FROM THE NATIVE OF

Absinthe Foliage of _Artemisia absinthium_ Europe.

Brazil nut Seeds of _Bertholletia excelsa_ Tropical S. America.

Camomile Flowers of _Anthemis nobilis_ Europe.

Cassava Roots of species of _Manihot_ Tropical America.

Water chestnuts Fruits of _Trapa natans_ Southern Europe.

Cohune nut Fruits of _Attalea Cohune_ Central America.

Cork Bark of _Quercus Suber_ Southern Europe and

northern Africa.

Gamboge resin Stems of species of _Garcinia_ Southeastern Asia.

Gum arabic Exudation of species of Tropical Asia and

_Acacia_ Africa.

Hops Female flowers of Eastern Europe.

_Humulus Lupulus_

Indigo Whole plant of India.

_Indigofera tinctoria_

Mushroom Whole plant of Temperate regions.

_Agaricus campestris_

Teak Wood of _Tectona grandis_ Southeastern Asia.

Japanese varnish

or lacquer Sap of _Rhus vernicifera_ China.