Vegetation.
Vegetation here runs riot, hardly checked by the devastating typhoon, or the fall of volcanic ashes. From the cocoa-nut palm growing on the coral strand, from the mangrove, building its pyramid of roots upon the ooze, to the giant bamboo on the banks of the streams, and the noble mango tree adorning the plains, every tropical species flourishes in endless variety, and forests of conifers[2] clothe the summits of the Zambales and Ilocan mountains.
As for the forest wealth, the trees yielding indestructible timber for ships, houses or furniture, those giving valuable drugs and healing oils, gums and pigments, varnishes, pitch and resin, dyes, sap for fermenting or distilling, oil for burning, water, vinegar, milk, fibre, charcoal, pitch, fecula, edible fungi, tubers, bark and fruits, it would take a larger book than this to enumerate them in their incredible variety.
Mango Trees.
A notable feature of the Philippine landscape is the mango tree. This truly magnificent tree is often of perfect symmetry, and rears aloft on its massive trunk and wide-spreading branches a perfect dome of green and glistening leaves, adorned in season with countless strings of sweet-scented blossom and pendent clusters of green and golden fruit, incomparably luscious, unsurpassed, unequalled.
Beneath that shapely vault of verdure the feathered tribes find shelter. The restless mango bird[3] displays his contrasted plumage of black and yellow as he flits from bough to bough, the crimson-breasted pigeon and the ring-dove rest secure.
These glorious trees are pleasing objects for the eye to rest on. All through the fertile valleys of Luzon they stand singly or in groups, and give a character to the landscape which would otherwise be lacking. Only the largest and finest English oaks can compare with the mango trees in appearance; but whilst the former yield nothing of value, one or two mango trees will keep a native family in comfort and even affluence with their generous crop.
Bamboos.
On the banks of the Philippine streams and rivers that giant grass, the thorny bamboo, grows and thrives. It grows in clumps of twenty, forty, fifty stems. Starting from the ground, some four to six inches in diameter, it shoots aloft for perhaps seventy feet, tapering to the thickness of a match at its extremity, putting forth from each joint slender and thorny branches, carrying small, thin, and pointed leaves, so delicately poised as to rustle with the least breath of air.
The canes naturally take a gradual curve which becomes more and more accentuated as their diameter diminishes, until they bend over at their tops and sway freely in the breeze.
I can only compare a fine clump of bamboos to a giant plume of green ostrich feathers. Nothing in the vegetable kingdom is more graceful, nothing can be more useful. Under the blast of a typhoon the bamboo bends so low that it defies all but the most sudden and violent gusts. If, however, it succumbs, it is generally the earth under it that gives way, and the whole clump falls, raising its interlaced roots and a thick wall of earth adhering to and embraced by them.
Piercing the hard earth, shoving aside the stones with irresistible force, comes the new bamboo, its head emerging like a giant artichoke.
Each flinty-headed shoot soars aloft with a rapidity astonishing to those who have only witnessed the tardy growth of vegetation in the temperate zone. I carefully measured a shoot of bamboo in my garden in Santa Ana and found that it grew two feet in three days, that is, eight inches a day, ⅓ inch per hour. I could see it grow. When I commenced to measure the shoot it was eighteen inches high and was four inches in diameter. This rapid growth, which, considering the extraordinary usefulness of the bamboo ought to excite man’s gratitude to Almighty Providence, has, to the shame of human nature, led the Malay and the Chinaman to utilise the bamboo to inflict death by hideous torture on his fellow men. (See Tûkang Bûrok’s story in Hugh Clifford’s ‘Studies of Brown Humanity.’)
Each joint is carefully enveloped by nature in a wrapper as tough as parchment, covered, especially round the edges, with millions of small spines. The wrapper, when dry, is brown, edged with black, but when fresh the colours are remarkable, pale yellow, dark yellow, orange, brown, black, pale green, dark green, black; all shaded or contrasted in a way to make a Parisian dress designer feel sick with envy.
This wrapper does not fall off till the joint has hardened and acquired its flinty armour so as to be safe from damage by any animal.
It would take a whole chapter to enumerate the many and varied uses of the bamboo.
Suffice it to say that I cannot conceive how the Philippine native could do without it.
Everlastingly renewing its youth, perpetually soaring to the sky, proudly overtopping all that grows, splendidly flourishing when meaner plants must fade from drought, this giant grass, which delights the eyes, takes rank as one of God’s noblest gifts to tropical man.
View on the Pasig with Bamboos and Canoe.
To face p. 6.
[1] England has 51,000 square miles area; Wales, 7378; Ireland, 31,759; Scotland, nearly 30,000. Total, Great Britain and Ireland, etc., 121,000 square miles.
[2] Worcester, p. 446, mentions Conifers at sea level in Sibuyan Island, province of Romblon.
[3] Called in Spanish the oropéndola (Broderipus achrorchus).
Chapter II.
Spanish Government.
Slight sketch of organization—Distribution of population—Collection of taxes—The stick.
The supreme head of the administration was a Governor-General or Captain-General of the Philippines. The British Colonial Office has preserved this Spanish title in Jamaica where the supreme authority is still styled Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief.
In recent years no civilian has been Governor-General of the Philippines, the appointment being given or sold to a Lieutenant-General, though in 1883 a Field-Marshal was sent out. But in 1874 Rear-Admiral Malcampo obtained the post, and a very weak and foolish Governor-General he turned out to be.
In former times military men did not have a monopoly of such posts, and civilians, judges, priests, and bishops have held this appointment.
The Governor-General had great powers. Practically, if not legally, he had the power of life and death, for he could proclaim martial law and try offenders by court-martial. He was ex officio president of every corporation or commission, and he could expel from the Islands any person, whether Spaniard, native, or foreigner, by a decree declaring that his presence was inconvenient.