ORIGIN. 1 1 



narrow like a cucumber, straight or crooked. The most common varie- 

 ties are usuall}' from 2 to 4 inches in length, more or less kidney-shaped, 

 with the " nak," or stigmatic point, more or less produced. In color 

 thev may be green, yellow, or red. In composition the diti'erence is 

 no less pronounced. In some the seed is large (see PI. IV, lig 2), and 

 the thin flesh between it and the skin consists almost entire!}' of liber 

 attached to the seed, while in others the seed is small, and in some so 

 nearly aborted that it is easily cut with a knife. In the best varieties 

 the tiber is almost entirelv wanting and the entire fruit consists of a 

 mass of juicy, usually orange-colored pulp. This in some varieties is 

 so firm that it may be sliced with a knife: in others it is soft enough 

 to be eaten with a spoon. 



The characters usually utilized in distinguishing varieties of the 

 fruit are the size, color, and form; the extent of the depression at the 

 stem; the location and prominence of the ''nak'' or stigmatic point; 

 the color and thickness of the flesh and the amount of fiber contained; 

 the presence or absence of a turpentine flavor. The seeds of diflerent 

 varieties are also very distinct. A glance at PI. V will give some idea 

 of the diversity, and although these characters are quite as constant 

 as those more commonly used, they seem never to have been utilized 

 in the description of varieties. 



The Anacardiaceae, to which the mango belongs, include also the 

 turpentine tree {Pistdcia terehinthus), the original source of turpen- 

 tine, and it seems not at all unlikely that the characteristic odor of the 

 mango is in reality due to the presence of turpentine or some closely 

 allied substance. Exudations of a transparent resinous substance sim- 

 ilar to that of the turpentine tree are frequently to be noticed in the 

 mango. 



ORIGIN. 



The mango {Mangifera indica) is said by De Candolle to be native 

 in South Asia or the Malay Archipelago, and recent authors report it 

 as wild in the forests of Ceylon and the regions at the base of the 

 Himalayas, especially toward the east, at an altitude of from 1,000 to 

 2,000 feet. The species has been so long under cultivation that it 

 would be extremely difficult to locate definitely the place or places 

 where it was actually domesticated. The general region is, how- 

 ever, without doubt that given above. Of the 37 species of Mangi- 

 fera enumerated in Index Kewensis, all are from the Indo-Malayan 

 region except two— one, described by Oliver, from West Africa, and 

 one, by M. Dessousseaux, from the island of Mauritius. Engler and 

 Prantl describe the genus as containing 27 species from the East 

 Indies and the Malay Archipelago. Its culture is very ancient, as 

 shown by references in Sanskrit mythology and ancient Hindu folklore. 



For so old and so useful a plant, its distribution was comparatively 



