THE ORCHARD FRUITS 



213 



oil cakes, palm sugar, palm wine, roofing materials, and coir — 

 the staple cordage of the tropics. 



The Mulberry Family, which is represented in the United 

 States by the osage orange and the mulberries, has two important 

 tropical members. The fig tree, originating in Arabia, has been 

 cultivated since earliest times in the Mediterranean region. It is a 

 shrub or small tree with a peculiar 

 accessory fruit (fig. 152) in which 

 the edible portion is a fleshy hollow 

 receptacle surrounding numerous 

 small achenes. The strangling fig 

 (fig. 153) is an American species 

 which grows as an epiphyte in the 

 tropical part of Florida. The most 

 important species is the Smyrna fig, 

 grown in Asia Minor, Greece, 

 Algeria, Portugal and California; 

 this variety produces no staminate 

 flowers and is dependent upon 

 another variety, the caprifig or wild 

 fig, for pollination and fruit for- 

 mation. This is brought about by a 

 tiny wasp which hatches in the 

 staminate flowers of the caprifig and carries pollen with it 

 when it emerges. Fig trees were cultivated in the mission gardens 

 of California a century ago; but when first grown as a crop, 

 growers were ignorant of the importance of the caprifig wasp so 

 that fig trees produced no fruit until this necessary insect was 

 imported, together with some wild fig trees. Figs are eaten fresh, 

 but the majority are dried, canned or preserved. California and 

 Texas produce most of the domestic crop, which was 35,000 tons 

 in 1935. 



The BREADFRUIT trcc, another important member of the 

 Mulberry Family, is a native of Malaya which has become wide- 

 spread throughout the tropics. The prickly berry-type of fruit 

 is an important vegetable, being eaten fresh or cooked in a 

 variety of ways. Each breadfruit is the size of a melon, and has a 

 fibrous yellow pulp. 



Fig. 1 54. — The fruit of the guava 

 is a large yellow berry. 



