ch. xv.] The Mango. 3 X 3 



tree, rarely over fifty feet in height, and generally not 

 much more than half that size. The old leaves are of a 

 deep green colour, but the young growth is often of a 

 bright red or crimson tint. The dense clusters of pea- 

 green flowers are followed b}' lax-drooping clusters of 

 kidney- shaped fruits which, when fully developed, vary 

 from two or three to as much as six inches in length, 

 and nearly half that in diameter in the broadest part. 

 These fruits consist of a tough green skin and a coat of 

 yellow pulp surrounding an oblong fibre-coated stone, to 

 which the flesh adheres. In the Sulu isles the mango 

 is abundantly naturalised, some of the trees being of large 

 size. In Indian gardens the best kinds are perpetuated 

 and increased by grafting, and this is also the case in 

 Manilla, where the best varieties are equal, if not supe- 

 rior, to those of Bombay, the excellence of which is well 

 nigh proverbial throughout the East. This tree is of 

 robust constitution and regularly produces two crops 

 every year, although at times the crops are very scanty, 

 owing to heavy rains during the flowering season. 



It is one of the Eastern fruits the culture of which is 

 moderately successful in the gardens of the West— notably 

 in Jamaica, and very fair samples of this fruit from the West 

 Indies now and then make their appearance in Covent 

 Garden from the Azores. The mango, like its more fas- 

 tidious neighbour the durian, is one of Nature's volup- 

 tuous productions, of which we have no representative in 

 our gardens, although, so far as the mango is concerned, 

 it might be cultivated successfully in our hothouses with 

 but little more trouble and expense than that which 

 attends the culture of pine-apples or bananas. There 

 are varieties which fruit freely when only five or six feet 

 high, and when only three or four years old ; the greatest 

 difficulty in the matter would be to secure the light sorts, 



