Although the forests of Cuba abound in several varieties of the citrus family growing wild within their depths, the fruit was probably brought from Spain by the early conquerors. The beautiful, glossy-leafed trees of the wild sour and bitter oranges are met today throughout most of the West Indies, and are especially plentiful in this island. The seeds have probably been carried by birds, but the wild fruit, although seldom if ever sweet, with its deep red color, is not only ornamental to the forest, but often refreshing to the thirsty individual who may come across it in his travels. The lime is also found in more or less abundance, scattered over rocky hillsides, where the beautiful lemon-like fruit goes to waste for lack of transportation to market. Almost everywhere in Cuba are found a few sweet orange trees that were planted years ago for home consumption, but only with the coming of Americans have the various varieties been planted systematically, in groves, and the citrus fruit has assumed its place as a commercial industry in the Island. Homeseekers from Florida found the native oranges of Cuba, all of which are called “Chinos” or Chinese oranges to distinguish them from the wild orange of the woods, to be not only sweet but often of superior quality to those grown either in Florida or California. A prominent horticulturist, who during the first Government of American Intervention made a careful study of the citrus fruit of Cuba, stated that the finest orange he had ever met during his years of experience was found in the patio or backyard of a residence in the City of Camaguey. The delicious fruit from that tree he described as an accident or horticultural freak, since no other like it has been found in the island. The rich soils, requiring comparatively little fertilizer, were very promising to the settlers who came over from Florida in 1900, and many of these pioneers planted large tracts with choice varieties of the orange, brought from their own state, and from California. Capital was interested in many sections, and extensive estates, orange groves covering hundreds and even thousands of acres, were planted near Bahia Honda, fifty miles west of Havana. Other large plantings were made on the Western Railroad at a point known as Herradura, in the province of Pinar del Rio, 100 miles from the capital. Smaller groves were planted in the neighborhood of San Cristobal and Candelaria, in the same province, some fifty miles from Havana. Other American colonies set out large groves in the eastern provinces; one at a station of the Cuban Railroad, in Camaguey, known as Omaha; another east of the harbor of Nuevitas. Orange groves were planted, too, at the American colony of La Gloria and at nearby places on the Guanaja Bay of the north shore.