THE SIAMESE POMELO 



Perhaps the Finest in the World —Several Types Seem to be Genuinely Seedless- 

 Occasional Seed-production Probably Due to Cross-pollination. 



II. II. Boyle 

 Bureau of Aiiricultiire, Manila, P. I . 



FOR many years, horticulturists 

 throughout the world have heard 

 stories of a wonderful seedless 

 pomelo in Siam, which was re- 

 ])uted to be finer than anything else of 

 that sort known to science, but which, 

 for some reason, always seemed to 

 elude the long grasp of the men who are 

 engaged in the work of securing new 

 ])lants for breeders in the various 

 tropical and sub-tropical regions. It 

 was 1 2 years from the time I first became 

 interested in this fruit to the time when 

 I actually saw it, but it is now estab- 

 lished in the Philippine Islands, has been 

 introduced to the United States and 

 will, I believe, spread throughout the 

 warmer portions of the world, as the 

 finest grapefruit cultivated. 



As early as 1902, when I was employed 

 in the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 

 Introduction of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, we secured plants of 

 this pomelo, as the result of a long 

 correspondence carried on by Mr. Fair- 

 child, in charge of the office. Prince 

 Chow, Phya Bhas Karawongse, sent 

 through G.' B. McFarland of the Wang 

 Lang Hospital, Bangkok, a Wardian 

 case of six trees propagated from those 

 in the private garden of the King of 

 Siam at Bangkok. Due to the long 

 journey and improper handling en 

 route, only one jjlant arrived in Wash- 

 ington alive. After being nursed to a 

 healthy state, it was planted in the 

 orange house with much solicitude, for 

 the rapidly increasing interest in the 

 pomelo as a breakfast fruit caused 

 cvx-ry citrus grower in the United States 

 to take an interest in the introduction. 

 In a few years it bore several large- 

 fruits, which were cut with nnuh 

 ceremony. Imagine the disai)i)oinl- 

 ment when it was found that these 



"Siamese Seedless Pomelos" contained 

 more seeds than the ordinary seedy 

 pomelos of the United States; that the 

 rind, instead of being a quarter of an 

 inch thick (the average for United 

 States pomelos) was at least an inch 

 thick; and that the segments were 

 numerous and tough in texture. In 

 short, the fruit was inferior to any of 

 the recognized varieties grown in the 

 United States, and the one tree was 

 destroyed. For many years thereafter 

 the Siamese seedless pomelo remained an 

 enticing but baffling mystery. 



In 1911 I was transferred to the 

 Philippine Bureau of Agriculture, and 

 shortly afterward learned from C. A. 

 Steele, a Siamese acquaintance, that 

 while the seedless pomelo was not 

 common in Siam, it nevertheless did 

 exist in certain parts of the country. A 

 few months later he sent us a small 

 shipment of budwood. In 1912 the 

 Bureau received from a passing traveler 

 a present of four fruits which, upon 

 inspection, fully justified the almost 

 legendary reputation of this pomelo. 

 We had before our eyes the substantial 

 evidence that the famous product was 

 not a myth, as many had claimed, but 

 that it was one of the finest citrus fruits 

 ever i)ropagated. 



TRIP TO SIAM fNDIiRT.VKEN. 



As a resvilt of this evidence, the 

 Bureau of Agriculture sent me to Siam 

 to study the pomelo on the spot and 

 obtain budwood, plants and fruits. 



My first introduction to it in its own 

 home was in the garden of Prince 

 Yugelar, 50 km. northeast of Bangkok, 

 where I met with a t>'i)c of orchard 

 ])lanting new to me. The trees were 

 all planted on levees, and I soon found 

 that this was the custom not only in 



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