THE ORCHARD FRUITS 207 



iports half of the world production. Citron trees are shrubby 

 md armed with stout thorns, producing greenish yellow and 

 'agrant fruits (fig. 144) resembling large rounded lemons; unlike 

 lother citrus fruits, the rind is thick and the pulp small and un- 

 [important. Commercial citron is the candied rind. 



Lime trees are tropical plants, often shrubby in habit, which 



[can not tolerate low temperatures. The small greenish fruits 



|(fig. 145) are exceedingly sour in taste, and are therefore used 



'hiefly as juice and a flavoring substance. Limes are natives of 



)utheastern Asia but are cultivated today in Italy, Ceylon, 



[India, the West Indies and Mexico. Limes are grown to a limited 



extent on the Florida keys, the state producing 10,000 boxes 



[annually. 



Smallest and least known of the citrus fruits is the kumquat, 



itroduced into England from China in the middle of the last 



:entury. The plum-sized fruits (fig. 146) have a thick spicy rind 



ind an acid flesh, and are eaten whole. Kumquats are hardy 



^enough to be grown as far north as Georgia. 



Other Tropical Fruits 



The tropics have been particularly generous in their produc- 

 tion of plants with edible fruits; over two hundred species grow 

 in the Philippine Islands alone. As yet most of these are unknown 

 and unappreciated by the white race. Most familiar are the 

 banana, date, coconut and pineapple of the monocot families; 

 and the fig, breadfruit, guava, olive and persimmon of the dicot 

 groups. 



The BANANA, a member of the family with the same name, 

 of which there are no species native to the United States, is a 

 tropical fruit indigenous to India and Malaya; it was cultivated 

 as long ago as 1000 B.C. in Assyria. The banana plant (fig. 147) 

 resembles a small tree, but is in reality a gigantic herbaceous 

 plant with a subterranean stem which sends up a dozen or two 

 large leaves whose sheathing stalks make up the "trunk." The 

 foliage consists of a crown of leaves, each four or five feet in 

 length. A single flower cluster is produced, which pushes its way 

 up through the leaf bases to emerge in the center of the crown. 

 The bunch of bananas is the fruit cluster, each fruit being a berry 



