NOTE ON A EECENT PAPER BY DR. BONAVIA ON THE MANGO. 201 



disappointing. He describes tliem as having a red cheek and yellow 

 colour ; they were stringy. The very fact of their being stringy 

 precludes them from being considered the real Alphonso mangoes, 

 much less could they be considered the best. Any mango grown in 

 Bombay, or around Bombay, may have a red cheek and yellow colour ; 

 but that does not make it a good mango. The entire absence of 

 strings is the characteristic of the real Bombay Alphonso, or Afoos as 

 it is popularly called. The mesocarp, or rather the sarcocarp, consisting 

 of the pulp of the fruit, can be cut through like fresh cheese that is not 

 very hard, or can be easily scooped out by means of an ordinary des- 

 sert spoon with a clean cut. As regards the real mango being 

 inferior in flavour to the scores of varieties Dr. Bonavia has seen in 

 Upper India, even supposing he has tasted the best Bombay mango, 

 it is a mere matter of taste. There is no accounting for tastes. There 

 is room for wide varieties. The common Konkani kunbi will never 

 care to eat the finest table-rice that a high class Hindu would prefer. 

 The kunbi would prefer his coarse rice, which he declares is sweeter 

 and more substantial. Children will never eat, at any rate fully appre- 

 ciate, the real Afoos^ but will be content to suck the juice of the Kaiwal 

 or smaller varieties of mangoes. The real Bombay mango is luscious, 

 sweet as honey, and its epicarp or rind very thin, almost transparent. 

 The thinner it is the better, and such as can be easily peeled off with- 

 out tearing through the rich and succulent pulp. It does not matter 

 then whether it has a red cheek or not, or whether it is yellow, or rich 

 orange, or saffron coloured. To turn out a good mango, free from 

 acidity, the mango must be plucked at the proper time. The nearer it 

 is to the ripe condition while yet on the tree the better will it turn out. 

 If the mango is plucked immature, even if it be if the best kind, it 

 will fail to give satisfaction. It will often, near the stone and a portion 

 of its pulp, remain pale in appearance, and often form fibrous 

 cavities, and will be acid to taste, showing that there has been a local- 

 ized gangrene of the parts concerned. A good mango on the other 

 hand, plucked perfectly mature and about to ripen, will require certain- 

 ly not more than five, six, or seven days at the outside to be fit for the 

 table. " The mango may bear," I agree with Dr. Bonavia, u being 

 plucked under-ripe, and can easily'' — so far as transit is concerned 

 I think — "be sent to England and there ripened," but I question if it 

 would ever ripen under such circumstances to perfection. A good 

 mango can never ripen well, much less to perfection, under the chill- 

 ing influence of the cold used to preserve it. Cold may prevent 



