The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1956, Page 29

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
27
house close to the improvised road. It
is about the size of a large apple tree.
At Christmas time last winter it was
covered with fruit of full size though
not quite ripe. The fruits were huge
and of a uniform size, each one just
as large as the very largest that once
in a while appears on the Canadian
market. When fruit of abnormal size
is seen one is prone to think that the
tree must have been fed with rich
vitamins with plenty of fertilizer. But
not this tree. It received the ordinary
care of the other citrus fruit trees on
the estate.
THE “MAMMA” AND
OTHER SHADE TREES
The tropical sun is too hot for the
cacao and coffee trees ,at least in the
West Indies, and they thrive only
under the shade of larger growing
trees. The coverage, however, must
neither be too thick nor too thin; in
fact it must and does vary. Here na-
ture (why not say God?) has produced
just the right kind of shade trees. Some
of these valuable protecting trees are
on the island in the wild state and the
cacao trees grow under them or close
by. Some are planted and then the
berry trees planted or grown from seed
under them. Coverage is provided by
a variety of trees but only three will
be mentioned here.
The most famous shade tree is the
Immortelle, of which there are two
kinds, the Mountain and the Swamp.
(Erythrina Poeppigiana and Erythrina
Glauca.) These and other trees of the
Erythrina family have been regarded
by the natives as poisonous and there
is a legend that anyone sitting under
one of them may become blind. This
is an exaggeration but it is admitted
by botanists that somewhat poisonous
juices can be extracted from the seeds
and leaves. That legend, however, does
not affect the popularity of these trees.
In a book called “Flowering Trees of
the Caribbean”, published by Rine-
hart and Company, Inc., of New York
and Toronto, it is stated that these
trees “are planted without qualms in
private gardens for ornament, on in-
numerable coffee and cacao plantations
for shade, and in the botanical gardens
where travelers have been known to
sit under an Immortelle for hours
’without going blind.’ ”
The Mountain Immortelle grows
anywhere in the tropics on high
ground and hillsides up to about
4000 feet above sea level and is the
more common and popular variety.
It has a bright orange flower which
grows in clusters. The trees shed the
foliage before the flowering period
and when the trees are in full bloom,
from December to March, they present
one of the most glorious sights in
Trinidad. This is especially so on the
Springhill Estate where masses of or-
ange-venmilion flowers are displayed
on the slopes of the Arima Valley with
the heavy tropical green forest as a
background. The view at that time is
equally beautiful from a low-flying
airplane passing almost anywhere over
the island.
These trees provide an ideal shade
for cacao and coffee trees as neither
the trifoliolate leaves nor the flowers
are too heavy to prevent the needed
amount of sunlight, or rain, going
through. The largest trees reach a
height of about eighty feet. In Trini-
dad the Mountain Immortelle is local-
ly called the “cocoa-mamma” or “coffee
mamma” tree—words truly descriptive
of the function it serves.
The Swarnp Immortelle produces
a flower of a salmon color, not
as showy as that of the Mountain
Immortelle and hence not so popular
as an ornament. It also has trifoliolate