CH. VII] FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 93 



The common orange grown in Cuba is perhaps the best orange 

 in the world, and those grown in the other West Indian islands 

 are also very good. The trees there yield very heavily, up to 

 3000 or 4000 oranges a tree a year, it is said, and the industry 

 is now a very considerable one. 



In Ceylon and the other eastern countries the cultivation of 

 oranges for market is not engaged in, and the local oranges are 

 in general rather poor (except in north-east India). Further- 

 more, in recent years Australian and Italian oranges have been 

 imported in large quantities, and this has still further dis- 

 couraged any local attempts to grow them. 



The lime (Citrus medica var. acida) comes next to the 

 orange in importance, and there is a considerable industry in 

 Montserrat and other West Indian islands in exporting the 

 preserved juice to Europe and America. As this juice, pleasant 

 though it is, has only a very slight resemblance indeed to the 

 juice of the fresh limes, it would seem as if it might be worth 

 while exporting the latter themselves to Europe, where people 

 might then make fresh " lime and soda " a very popular drink 

 in the east. 



The lime is a near relative of the orange, and grows on very 

 similar trees, and is in general cultivated in the same manner. 



Of late the trade in lime juice is showing a change. 

 Instead of exporting the concentrated juice, it is carefully 

 neutralised with fine prepared chalk, and the resulting citrate 

 of calcium dried and exported in airtight receptacles. From 

 this citric acid is made in Europe and America. 



A few other fruits require mention here, as, though they 

 are not exported to Europe or America, they are of enormous 

 importance within the tropics, furnishing a large proportion of 

 their food to the inhabitants. Thus the jak fruit (Artocarpus 

 integrifolia), a huge fleshy fruit which may weigh 30 Ibs. or 

 over, is universally cultivated in Ceylon and southern India, 

 and common in other tropical countries. The disagreeable 

 smell of the fruit renders it unpalatable to Europeans, but it is 

 one of the staples of life to the ordinary villager. Its place is 

 largely taken in the Malay countries by the durian (Durio 

 jzibethinus), a fruit with an exceedingly disagreeable and pene- 



