MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 149 
sometimes conical and sometimes heart-shaped or ovoid, the 
surface being covered with concave U-shaped areoles, each of 
which bears a small wart or tubercle. The favorite commer- 
cial type of California is called the Golden Russet. This is 
pear-shaped in outline, with small wart-like tubercles near 
the rounded apex of the areole. Through careful selection 
varieties of fine flavor with very few seeds may now be ob- 
tained, the fruit weighing from twelve to sixteen pounds. 
According to Faweett, ordinary fruits weighing from three 
to eight pounds have sold in the London markets at one dol- 
lar and a half, the larger ones at two and a half to three 
dollars. 
MANGOSTEEN (GARCINIA MANGOSTANA) 
The mangosteen is native of the Malay region. It is a hand- 
some tree twenty-five to thirty feet in height, bearing dense 
dark green foliage resembling the rubber tree. Its growth is 
very slow and fruit is not produced for eight to nine years 
from the seedling stage. In Ceylon the trees flower twice a 
year, first in August, the fruit ripening in January, and 
again in January, the fruit ripening in July and August. 
According to Wright, the January crop yields but 100 fruits 
to a tree while the August crop yields 500 to 600 fruits to a 
tree. 
The fruit is particularly striking in view of the persistent 
large leathery light green calyx lobes. It is indescribably 
delicious in flavor and has been called the ‘‘queen of the 
fruits.’’ The late Queen Victoria valued it so highly as to 
offer a prize for its first introduction into England from India. 
The fruit is about the size of a Mandarin orange, round and 
slightly flattened at each end, with a smooth thick rind, rich 
purple in color sparsely spotted by hardened drops of the 
yellow juice. Apparently there is nothing to mar the per- 
fection of the mangosteen unless it is that of the juice of the 
rind which leaves an objectionable indelible stain. 
In the Dutch East Indies the fruit is offered for sale heaped 
upon baskets or made in long regular bunches braided to- 
gether with thin strips of bamboo. Upon opening the fruit 
the coloration and beauty of the individual segments of the 
pulp attract attention. These five to seven segments, sep- 
arated by snow-white partitions, are somewhat loosely at- 
tached to the rind similarly to the Mandarin orange but cov- 
ered with a network of delicate fibers. The sides of the seg- 
ments are translucent and slightly tinged with pale green. 
