NOTE ON A RECENT PAPER BY DB. BONAVIA ON THE MANGO. 208 



experience of mango-culturists on this side of India when he says 

 that " it does not at all follow that a stone of a good mango will not 

 give a better fruit than that of its parent." The common experience 

 here is that a seedling is not only not better than its parent in the pro- 

 duction of the proper fruit, but as a general rule is not even as good 

 as its parent. For instance, a good Alphonso or Payari (spiked or 

 sharply curved at the apex) can never be cultivated out of its res- 

 pective seedlings. They always degenerate, no matter what the 

 parent is. A special mango has always to be obtained from grafts. 

 Grafting mangoes is an industry which is very paying, and now that 

 the whole island of Salsette is under extensive cultivation at the hands 

 of intelligent and painstaking landowners, it is certain that at no 

 distant day Bombay will be abundantly supplied with excellent 

 graft Alphonso and Payari mangoes. Notwithstanding the high 

 authority of DeCandolle, quoted by Dr. Bonavia, with regard to the 

 mango cultivated in the colony of Cayenne bearing stones which 

 produce letter fruit than that of the original stock, the common 

 experience in India with regard to the Alphonso or Bombay mango is 

 different. The seed as it developes into a plant takes a long time to 

 bear fruit, the fruit itself losing the characters of its parent The 

 seed of an Alphonso mango will not produce an Alphonso fruit, but 

 degenerate into a common Eaiwal. 



K. R. K. 



A CATALOGUE OF THE FLORA OF MATHERAN. 



BY THE HON. H. M. BIRDWOOD, VICE-PRESIDENT. 



A recent visitor to Matheran is said to have complained sadly of 

 the monotony of its vegetation. That too familiar " Matheran tree'* 

 was everywhere, and everywhere the same ; and though it was very 

 beautiful, with its glossy leaves and purple plums, it so impressed 

 its sameness on the landscape as to induce a sense of depression, 

 from which the visitor was ghid to escape. It is just possible that 

 his experience was not altogether singular ; for we do not all cultivate 

 alike the faculty of observation. Two men, with the same love for 

 the beauties of Nature, and with equally good eyesight, may look on 

 the same fair scene of hill and forest, sea and sky, with very different 

 apprehension of its infinite variety, and with very different degrees, 

 therefore, of satisfaction. The one may take in, with the trained eye 

 of the artist, notable details which the other misses. He will see 



