Among the fruit trees we find cocoanut palms, tamarinds, prickly pears, guavas, mangoes, bananas, oranges, limes, cacao (or cocao) trees and lemons. Among the spices found here are the pimento, or allspice, nutmeg, clove, pepper, mace, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla. The hills are covered with forests, which, yield valuable timber and dye woods. Among these are mahogany, cedar, ebony, and lignum-vitae trees. Logwood and other dye materials are common. Many varieties of the palm flourish here,--the cocoanut palm producing fruit in greater abundance than in any other country of the West Indies. THE COCOA PALM. The most abundant cocoanut groves in the world are said to be found on Puerto Rico and the other islands of the Antilles. This tree usually grows near the coast, for it loves the salt water; but it is sometimes found on the hill slopes a short distance inland. "The tree grows to a height of from sixty to eighty feet, lives a hundred years, bears a hundred nuts each year, and is said to have a hundred uses for man." The trees bear such heavy burdens of fruit that it seems impossible that so slender a trunk could hold such a weight of fruit in the air. The fruit is expensive when it comes to us, because of the difficulty in climbing the trees, gathering the nuts, and removing from them the heavy fibrous husks. [Illustration: GATHERING COCOANUTS.] Here is a negro gathering cocoanuts. Let us watch him. He climbs the tall tree, dragging a rope after him. About his waist is a belt in which is thrust a machete. He hacks off a bunch of the nuts and attaches it to the end of the rope. It is then lowered to another negro or to the ground. The nuts are in bunches of a dozen or two, and are covered with a green, smooth, shining covering. After the bunches of nuts are all removed from the tree, the climber throws down the rope and comes down hand over hand. These nuts are so large that a single one often yields two glasses of milk. We found that the natives made boats and furniture, as well as houses, from the trunk of this palm tree. They extract from its roots a remedy for fever. The foot stalks of the leaves are made into combs. The leaves are used for thatching huts and in making baskets, mats and hats. The fibrous material at the base of the foot stalks is used for sieves, and woven into clothing. A medicine is made from the flowers, and from the flower-stalks palm wine is made. From the juice is made sugar and vinegar. From the fruit or nut, water, jelly and meat are obtained. Oil is extracted from the kernel; and the refuse is used for food for fowls and cattle, as well as for manure. From the husks ropes, brooms, brushes, and bedding are made. The shells are used as lamps, cups, spoons, and scoops. It has been called the poor man's tree because it gives him food, drink, medicine and material with which to build his home. The tropics could not do without the palm. It is more to that region than the pine is to the north.