TROPICAL GARDENS 



tioner than natural products. The same may be said of the Abacate. 

 This fruit looks like a large pear, for which reason it is sometimes 

 called the avocat-pear. It is cut in two, the large, round stone 

 is removed, and the cavity is filled with red wine; the whole is 

 sprinkled with sugar, and the creamy, tender, aromatic pulp is 

 eaten with a spoon. Or the pulp may be mixed with ice in a glass, 

 when one can enjoy its bright green colour; while some prefer to 

 pepper the fruit and eat it as a vegetable. 



Another South American tree which produces a delicious fruit is 

 the Anona. This too has a pulp like the finest, sweetest aromatic 

 cream, and a hard stone which must be extracted before eating the 

 fruit. In Brazil there are three principal varieties : the Pinho, 

 so called because the green or bluish fruit reminds one, by reason 

 of the prominences on its rind, of a pine-cone; the Ox-heart, Coracao 

 de boi, a larger fruit, with scales that give it the appearance of being 

 covered with network ; and the Cherimolia, which grows at higher 

 altitudes than the other two. 



When I arrived in Pernambuco, in July, I was able to enjoy the 

 Sapotys, fruits with a rough, horny shell, stony kernels, and a very 

 sweet, almost liquid pulp, whose flavour reminds one of a sleepy 

 William pear. Among the Sapoty-trees Genipapas were growing. 

 The large fruit has a rather astringent pulp; mixed with water it 

 yields a cooling drink, and later, when the lemons gave out, it 

 provided an acceptable substitute. 



I can give the reader only a faint idea of the great variety of the 

 Brazilian fruits ; a list even approximately complete would require 

 a volume to itself And to these one must add the European fruits 

 which have been naturalized in Brazil. The whole country abounds 

 with oranges, even to excess, and this excess is apparent in the manner 

 of eating the fruit ; the peel is cut away with a sharp knife, whereby, 

 of course, a good deal of the pulp is wasted. The flavour of the 

 oranges and tangerines of Brazil is inferior to that of the European 

 fruit, but they are richer in sugar, and often contain more juice ; 

 this is the case with the famous Bahia oranges, which are unusually 

 large, and devoid of pips ; the pips are contained in a little "daughter 

 orange," which is situated in the upper part of the larger fruit. 



There are also bitter oranges, which are eaten after dinner, for 

 their laxative properties ; as is the bitter grape-fruit. As for lemons, 

 I was delighted to find, in the garden at Olinda, the small, spherical, 

 Hght-green lemon, which has a flavour far excelling that of any other 

 variety ; it is, moreover, full of juice, and almost devoid of tissue. 



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