22 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



25884 to 25887 Continued. 



Plants of the following: 



25884 to 25886. From Cape St. Jacques. 



25884. Cinnamomum loureirii Nees. 



"This species is supposed to be one of the most valuable sources of 

 some of the best cinnamon that comes to our market." (R. II. True.) 

 Distribution. — A native of the mountains of Cochin China and of Japan. 



25885. Atalantia sp. 



25886. Tetracronia cymosa Pierre. 



Distribution. — A shrub or small tree, native of the mountains in the 

 vicinity of Binh Dinh, French Indo-China. 

 25887. Garcinia mangostana L. Mangosteen. 



From Saigon. "This delicious fruit is about the size of a mandarin orange, 

 round and slightly flattened at each end, with a smooth, thick rind, rich red- 

 purple in color, with here and there a bright, hardened drop of the yellow juice 

 which marks some injury to the rind when it was young. As these mangosteens 

 are sold in the Dutch East Indies — heaped up on fruit baskets or made up into 

 long, regular bunches, with thin strips of braided bamboo — they are as strik- 

 ingly handsome as anything of the kind could well be, but it is only when the 

 fruit is opened that its real beauty is seen. The rind is thick and tough, and 

 in order to get at the pulp inside it requires a circular cut with a sharp knife 

 to lift the top half off like a cap, exposing the white segments, five, six, or seven 

 in number, lying loose in the cup. The cut surface of the rind is of a most 

 delicate pink color and is studded with small yellow points formed by the drops of 

 exuding juice. As you lift out of this cup, one by one, the delicate segments, 

 which are the size and shape of those of a mandarin orange, the light-pink sides 

 of the cup and the veins. of white and yellow embedded in it are visible. The 

 separate segments are between snow-white and ivory in color and are covered 

 with a delicate network of fibers, and the side of each segment where it presses 

 against its neighbor is translucent and slightly tinged with pale green. As one 

 poises the dainty bit of snowy fruit on his fork and looks at the empty pink 

 cup from which it has been taken, he hardly knows whether the delicate flavor 

 or the beautiful coloring of the fruit pleases him the more, and he invariably 

 stops to admire the rapidly deepening color of the cut rind as it changes on 

 exposure to the air from light pink to deep brown. The texture of the man- 

 gosteen pulp much resembles that of a well-ripened plum, only it is so delicate 

 that it melts in your mouth like a bit of ice cream. The flavor is quite inde- 

 scribably delicious and resembles nothing you know of, and yet reminds you, 

 with a long after-taste, of all sorts of creams and ices. There is nothing to mar 

 the perfection of this fruit, unless it be that the juice from the rind forms an 

 indelible stain on a white napkin. Even the seeds are often partly or wholly 

 lacking, and, when present, are generally so thin and small that they are really 

 no trouble to get rid of. Where cheap and abundant, as in Java, one eats these 

 fruits by the half peck, and is never tired of them. They produce no feeling 

 of satiety, such as the banana and the mango do, for there is little substance to 

 the delicate pulp." (David Fairchild.) 



25888 to 25890. 



From India. Presented by Mrs. Erne Pyle Fisher, Igatpuri, through Miss 

 Audrey Goss. Received August 25, 1909. 

 176 



