THE GUAVA AND ITS USES 395 



are considered a greater delicacy than the fruit, which in a raw state 

 resembles the chestnut in flavor, and under favorable conditions weighs 

 over three pounds. The proper way to grow them is to plant the whole 

 fruit, as they have but one seed, and they produce fruit in three months, 

 under favorable conditions. The vine is exceedingly rapid in growth 

 and may cover a thousand square feet in one summer. 



THE GUAVA 



Two species of guava have been quite widely tried in this State 

 the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleyanum) and the lemon guava 

 (Psidium guayava). The former is the hardier, and, in fact, seems to 

 be about as hardy as the orange, and it has fruited in widely-separated 

 parts of the State; the latter is quite tender, and is at present only 

 grown in favorable places along our southern coast, and even there it 

 is found inferior in quality and usefulness to the strawberry guava. 



Mr. C. P. Taft, of Orange, has confidence in the lemon guava 

 through the selection of better varieties. It is far larger than the 

 Strawberry, and of quite attractive appearance. Sometimes the color 

 is almost white, sometimes quite green, and frequently of a bright 

 yellow, often with a red check. These variations are only what is 

 naturally to be expected from seedlings, and almost no others have yet 

 been planted. Mr. Taft has fruited quite a number, perhaps a hundred, 

 and finds it to possess qualities which if properly selected and developed 

 will cause it to equal the Strawberry guava in hardiness and flavor and 

 early ripening. 



Mr. D. W. Coolidge, of Pasadena, president of the California Asso- 

 ciation of Nurserymen, at the annual meeting of that body in Fresno, 

 November, 1913, gave his judgment of the standing of the guava in 

 California as follows : 



The guava is a plant of great value as an ornamental. Its glossy green 

 foliage is scarcely less attractive than Us large snowy white, jasmine scented 

 flowers. While many varieties of the guava are found growing in our section, 

 few of them to my mind have any real value. The strawberry guava type is 

 the hardiest and by all odds the best, and all that have had opportunity to test 

 it agree with me in saying Guava lucidum is the best. This is a yellow straw- 

 berry guava of a distinctive flavor, and were it not for the large seeds possessed 

 by all guavas would be considered an ideal desert fruit. This particular 

 variety, too, is most prodigious in its bearing qualities. I have known a plant 

 three years from seed to nroduce more than a quart of fruit, and we have had 

 in our nursery plants eighteen months from the time the seed was placed in 

 the ground with a number of fruits on them. The fruits will average an inch 

 or more in diameter, always round, and are of a bright lemon color. The 

 ordinary strawberr^ or red guava is worth while growing for jellies. Another 

 desirable strawberry guava is the Guava araca. This in appearance is similar 

 to lucidum, but is much later. While lucidum ripens from September to 

 November, I have never known araca to ripen before the middle or last of 

 December. This one is the more susceptible to frost. 



The guava grows quite readily from the seed, and grows from cut- 

 rings under glass. In regions of generous rainfall and on retentive soil 

 it does not require irrigation, but it must have sufficient moisture at 

 command. A light loam seems best adapted to the shrub. 



