GUAVA AND FEIJOA 401 



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 cheek. 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 prop- 

 erly selected and developed will cause it to equal the strawberry 

 guava in hardiness and flavor and early ripening. 



Mr. D. W. Coolidge, of Pasadena, gives 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 its 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 best, and Guava lucidum is the best of the type. This is 

 a yellow strawberry guava of a distinctive flavor, and were it not for the 

 large seeds possessed by all guavas would be considered an ideal dessert 

 fruit. This particular variety, too, is most prodigious in its bearing quali- 

 ties. I have known a plant three years from seed to produce 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 strawberry 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 from cuttings 

 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. 



THE FEIJOA 



Along with the guava should be mentioned the Feijoa Sellow- 

 iana, a member also of the myrtle family, and sometimes called 

 ''Paraguay guava." In habits of growth it is much the same as 

 the guava, and while the foliage is not so handsome, being of a 

 generally silver gray effect, the flower is very showy. In May it 

 sends forth a great profusion of blossoms, which may be called 

 red, white and blue, unless one desires to be perfectly accurate, in 

 which case the blue would have to be changed to purple. The 

 petals! are unusually thick and fleshy and are very sweet to the 

 taste. The highly perfumed fruit, about one and one-half to two 

 inches or more in length, comes in November. The flavor is de- 



