ANANAS 



SATIVA THE PINE-APPLE 



Pine-apple 



where it is often gregarious. In South India it is important in coast-dune 

 reclamation. 



Gum. The bark yields a GUM which is obnoxious to insects. The juice which issues 



from incisions in the bark is used as an indelible marking-ink. The bark and 



Oils. the pericarp yield an OIL (called dik), which is occasionally employed to tan 



fishing-nets. Two OILS are obtainable from this plant: (1) a light-yellow from 

 the pressed kernels, of which the finest quality is equal to almond oil ; and (2) 

 " Cardole," obtained from the shell of the nut an acrid and powerful fluid 

 efficacious for preserving carved wood, books, etc., against white ants. It is 



Medicine. used as a rubefacient and vesicant MEDICINE. The spirit distilled from the 



juice of the fruit and sold when redistilled at about Rs. 1 per gallon, is a useful 

 stimulant and the fruit itself has antiscorbutic properties. The seeds, known 



Pood. as Cashew-nuts, are usually eaten roasted and are made into confectionery with 



Timber. sugar. The fruit-pedicels are also eaten. The TIMBER (weight 30 to 38 Ib. 



per cubic foot) is used for packing-cases and for boat-building and charcoal. 



Trade. Cashew-nuts are imported into Bombay from Goa in very considerable quantities. 



The kernels are valued at about Rs. 18 per cwt. [<7/. Garcia de Orta, 1563, Coll., 

 v. ; Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 232; Linschoten, Voy.E. Ind. (ed. Hakl. 

 Soc.), 1598, ii., 127 ; Acosta, 1598, in Clusius, Exot. PL, 1605, 272 ; Garcia de Orta 

 in Clusius, Exot. PL, 1605, 198 ; Boym, PL Sin., 1656, C. ; Milburn, Or. 

 Comm., 1813, i., 273; etc., etc.] 



D.E.P., 

 i., 236-9. 



Introduction 

 into India. 



Early 

 Travellers 

 in India. 



ANANAS SATIVA, Schult. ; BROMELIACEJE. 



Shortly after the discovery of America the Pine-apple appears to have 

 been dispersed rapidly over the world and acclimatised in most tropical 

 countries. The Spaniards called it Pinas because of its resemblance to 

 the pine-cone, but the Portuguese adapted to their own tongue its Brazilian 

 name Nanas and called it Ananas, a word which in some form or other has 

 accompanied the plant throughout the world. In most of the languages 

 of India it bears names clearly derived from the Brazilian, such as ananas, 

 andnash, andras, andshappazham, na-ndt, andsa, etc. Or it is called 

 Foreign Screwpine, European Jack Fruit, etc. all modern names. There 

 are no names for it in any of the classic languages of Europe, Asia, Arabia 

 or Egypt. 



History. Oviedo (Hist, de las Ind., 1548 (ed. 1853), iii., 280-4) described 

 the plant as grown in the West Indies and on the American mainland, and 

 Christopher Acosta (in Clusius, Hist. Exot. PL, 1605, 284) speaks of it as plentiful 

 in India. He mentions a wild form in the Deccan called queura, which suggests 

 a confusion with -fananntm <Ki<-atiNniniti*. and it is curious that Abul Fazl 

 (Ain-i-Akbari (Blochmann, transl.), 83) should contrast the leaves of the keivrah 

 (Pntnifinttfi) with the maize a plant then only recently introduced into India. 

 Marcgraf (in Piso, Ind. Utri re Nat. et Med., 1658) mentions the pine-apple 

 in Brazil, and Hernandez ( 1651) in Haiti and Mexico. It is figured and described 

 by most botanists of the 16th to 18th centuries, e.g. J. Bauhin (1651), Boym 

 (Fl. Sin., 1656), Ligon (Hist. Barbados, 1657), Bontius (in Piso, I.e. 1658), 

 Rheede (Hort. Mai., 1692, xi. tt. 1-2), Merian (Insect. Surinam, 1705, tt. 1-2), 

 Rumphius (Herb. Amb., 1750, v., 228), etc., etc. Boym speaks of it as brought 

 from India to China. Rheede (confirming Acosta) declares it to have been intro- 

 duced by the Portuguese, but less than a century later it had become so common 

 as to be considered indigenous by Rumphius. Marco Polo naturally says nothing 

 of it, and the reference usually given to Garcia de Orta is properly a note by 

 Clusius contrasting Garcia's description of the Mango with Oviedo's description 

 of the pine-apple. It is mentioned prominently by Linschoten, Pyrard, Bernier, 

 Herbert and other travellers, and Jahangir (Memoirs (Price, transl.), 13-4) alludes 

 to its introduction, but the Emperor Baber (1519) does not include it in his list 

 of the fruits of Hindustan. Finally in 1800, Buchanan-Hamilton wrote that it was 

 regarded as the fourth most important fruit in Dinajpur. [Cf. Herbert, Travels, 

 1677, 334; Turner, Ace. Emb. Tibet, 1800, 13-5; Taleef Shereef (Playfair, transl.), 

 1833, 17 ; As. Journ., 1819, vii., 264 ; Watson, Journ. As. Soc., Beng., 1834, iii., 

 27 ; Bennett, Wanderings N.-S. Wales, 1834, ii., 208-9 ; Logan, Pina Cloth, Journ. 

 Ind. Archi., 1848, 528 ; De Candolle, Orig. Cult. Plants, 1884, 311-2 ; Blechynden, 



66 



