238 FLORIDA FRUITS OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS. 



Among the many other fruits of South Florida fast 

 rising into prominence, first and foremost stands the 



MANGO. 



This is a large, spreading tree like the walnut, with lan- 

 ceolate leaves, green and shiny, seven or eight inches 

 long, and having a sweet, resinous smell; the flowers are 

 white and grow in bunches at the ends of the branches. 

 The fruit bears considerable resemblance to a short, thick 

 cucumber, and taking the average of all the varieties, 

 " whose name is legion," is about the size of a goose egg. 



Some, when ripe, are of a beautiful green, others are 

 orange color. When thoroughly mature, ripe, but not 

 overripe, the mango is as delicious a fruit as one need 

 wish to taste, but let it become in the least degree de- 

 cayed, and oh ! what a transformation. 



The writer has a very vivid recollection of one such 

 eaten nay, tasted on the Isthmus of Panama ; a mixt- 

 ure of tow and turpentine would be the nearest approach 

 to the delicious flavor and stringy texture of that mango. 

 It had probably not only "seen better days," but was also 

 one of those inferior seedlings which appear now and then 

 as "sports," although, as a rule, the seed of the mango 

 yields fine fruit. 



This seed is a rather large stone, something like that of 

 the peach, to which the pulp adheres firmly ; the fruit is 

 very perishable, and so is the vegetative power of the 

 seed, and when they are to be sent to any distance they 

 should be carefully wrapped in wax. 



