NORTH INDIA WOOD 321 



to 50 feet high, whose peculiar and very showy clusters of scarlet 

 flowers are noticeable objects wherever they grow. It flowers from 

 May to July at elevations from 1,500 to 4,000 feet. 



Another important Australian species is the flame tree {Sterculia 

 acenfoJia), of medium size, a species with large, glossy, angular 

 leaves, preferring high altitudes, at least up to 5,500 feet. It blooms 

 in May and June when bare of leaves, producing brilliant masses 

 of bright red blossoms. 



Trofical fruit trees little known in ATJierica. — As every observing 

 traveler in the Near and Far East knows, only a few edible tropical 

 fruits have been widely grown and improved by scientific cultivation 

 in American and other temperate climates. And yet there is no 

 reason why many others should not be domesticated in the United 

 States. As Macmillan has pointed out, certain tropical fruits, un- 

 surpassed for their lusciousness and food value, are still capable of 

 considerable improvement and of adaptation to a change of environ- 

 ment by " selective or asexual propagation, by budding, grafting, 

 layering, cuttings, etc., or by hybridization and high cultivation." 

 These problems have long been considered by our highly compe- 

 tent and active Department of Agriculture, and it seems a wonder 

 that some of the most obviously valuable of the long list of desirable 

 tropical and semitropical trees are not more extensively utilized by 

 American fruit growers in such localities as are suitable for their 

 profitable adoption. One of the errors to be avoided in this connec- 

 tion is a slavish imitation of fruit-growing methods in the Tropics 

 themselves, where as a rule the lines of least resistance are followed ; 

 for example, the lazy methods of seed propagation instead of more 

 laborious though generally more profitable schemes involving care- 

 ful selection of stock and its budding, grafting, fertilizing, regular 

 pruning, and replanting. There is, of course, room to speak of only 

 a few of these attractive and desirable fruits but little known in 

 North America. 



The sapodilla plum (Achras sapota) — in India sometimes im- 

 properly called mangosteen — or noseberry is a medium-sized (20 

 to 30 foot) tree with shiny, dark green leathery leaves, originally 

 from tropical America but cultivated throughout India. An enthu- 

 siastic naturalist saj^s of this russet applelike fruit (made up when 

 ripe of a mass of soft, brownish pulp holding a number of easily 

 separated large black seeds), "a more luscious, cool, and agreeable 

 fruit is not to be met with in any country in the world." The 

 sapodilla thrives up to 3,000 feet and usually bears two crops a year. 



The papaya, pawpaw, or tree-melon {Carica papaya) is a small, 

 fast-growing, branchless, herbaceous tree, from 15 to 20 feet high, 

 widel3'- cultivated throughout India. It bears a crown of long and 



