1339 



soft to moderately hard in structure, resembling in 

 some respects the European ash. This tree is very 

 valuable and is used in the manufacture of oars, sam- 

 pan poles, plows, platters, spinning wheels, and for 

 many other purposes." (Watt's Dictionary of the Eco- 

 nomic Products of India, vol. 3, p. 442.) 



Garcinia mangostana (Clusiaceae ) , 46204. Mangosteen. 



From Buitenzorg, Java. Presented by the Director, Bo- 

 tanic Garden. "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 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 strikingly 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, ex- 

 posing the white segments, five, six, or seven in num- 

 ber, 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 ex- 

 uding juice. As you lift out of this cup, one by pne , 

 the delicate segments, which are the size and shape 

 6f 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 

 tlavor 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 mangosteen pulp much resembles 

 that of a well-ripened plum, only it is so deli- 

 cate that it melts in your mouth like a bit of ice 

 cream. The flavor is quite indescribably delicious 

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



