TROPICAL FRUITS 



exported in ice. The akee might be exported if pre- 

 served. The part used is the large arillus attached to 

 the seed, and it is served as a relish with meat dishes. 

 The governor's plum is a fruit the size of a green-gage 

 and makes fine jellies. The cashew is useful when pre- 

 served, but is too tender for export. The large seeds, 

 roasted and bottled for preservation, form one of the 

 best table nuts known. The guava can only be exported 

 in the form of the well-known guava jelly. When a 

 good variety is to hand the Pomme Cythere is an excel- 

 lent and well-flavored table fruit. The granadilla makes 

 excellent ices, and the water lemon is much used as 

 dessert, having the appearance and flavor of a huge ripe 

 gooseberry, though generally somewhat sweeter. Meli- 

 cocca bijuga, or the genip, is a children's fruit, and is 

 seldom seen at table. Like all similar fruits there has 

 practically been no selection, and a large amount of 

 variation appears. This is very prominent in the genip. 

 Some are very acid, while others are deliciously sweet. 

 This variation, as shown in seedlings, is fully sufficient 

 to account for the diverse opinions as to the qualities of 

 tropical fruits. 



The citrous tribes are, of course, sub-tropical fruits, 

 but it is possible to grow them to great perfection in the 

 tropics. When grown upon the sour orange stock, the 

 trees are capable of reaching a large size, and will 

 afford regular crops. An excellent start has been made 

 in many West Indian islands in the cultivation of 

 grafted plants of the best kinds. 



Trees in the tropics usually have their regular season 

 of fruiting, but many trees, such as the mango and the 

 orange, produce fruit out of season, or in the coolest 

 season of the year. Trees which fruit at such a season 

 are generally the most inferior kinds. 



Most visitors to the tropics choose this season for 

 making their tour, and in consequence never have tin- 

 opportunity of seeing or tasting the best qualities of 

 the fruit produced, and only get inferior kinds, which 

 the regular resident would not trouble to eat. When a 

 mango is described as "all tow and turpentine," the 

 writers were writing truly of the ordinary "out of 

 season" mango, but all-the-year-round residents know 

 that these kinds are as different from the selected varie- 

 ties as is the quince from a jargonelle or a pear or a 

 crab apple from a Ribston pippin. j jj Hart. 



Another View o! Tropical Fruits. - The fruits most 

 growu for export from the West Indies are bananas, 

 oranges, grape fruit or pomelo, pineapples and cocoa- 

 nuts. Others that are prized, but not exported to any 

 extent, are mangoes, grapes, star-apples, naseberry or 

 sapodilla, avocado pear, granadilla, cherimoya, sweet 

 sop and maugosteen. 



Banana.— There are between 20 and 30 different va- 

 rieties of banana, and about half as many of the plan- 

 tain, which is the form of banana used as a vegetable. 

 The enormous export of over 8,000,000 ounches of ba- 

 nanas annually from Jamaica is almost entirely of one 

 particular variety, which goes under various names,— 

 "Jamaica," "Martinique," "Gros Michel," etc. A small 

 quantity of a red - skinned variety is occasionally ex- 

 ported. It is prized rather for its color and effective- 

 ness in a dish of fruit than for its quality. There are 

 others, such as "Lady's Finger," which are superior in 

 flavor to the Jamaica, and are destined to obtain in time 

 special prices in the markets. These superior varieties 

 have mostly been collected by the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 from India, Java, Straits Settlements, etc., and have 

 been sent out from time to time to the Botanic Gardens 

 of the West Indies. 



The soil most suitable for banana culture is a deep 

 loam with a large proportion of humus. Good drainage 

 is essential. Bananas grow well under irrigation, but 

 the application of the water must be carefully watched. 

 The only disease that is known is a species of Maras- 

 mius, a fungus which attacks the petiole of the leaf. 

 It has not done much harm, and in fact has not attracted 

 any notice except in Trinidad. Insects do not interfere 

 with plant or fruit. Nematode worms are known in 

 other countries to have caused great destruction, but ii" 

 cases are reported from any part of tropical America. 



Citrous Fruits (more properly sub-tropical).— Until a 

 few years ago no attention was paid to the cultivation 



TROPICAL FRUITS 



1863 



of any of the citrous fruits: they simply grew wild,— 

 seeds were dropped by birds, and wherever the soil 

 was suitable trees sprung up. Naturally many hybrids 

 and inferior kinds exist, but the great mass of the trees 

 have come true, and the fruit is of excellent quality. 

 Since Florida has suffered so much in its orange-groves, 

 cultivation in the West Indies has become general, and 

 all the best kinds of Citrus have been imported from 

 Florida, California and England. In Jamaica the navel 

 orange was introduced direct from Bahia many years 

 ago, and there is good evidence that it occurs spontan- 

 eously in the island at the most favorable elevation for 

 the orange, — about 2,300 feet. A natural hybrid between 

 the sweet orange and the tangierine is also known in the 

 same district. The general excellence of the orange in 

 Jamaica is partly due to the large numbers of grafted St. 

 Michaels that, were distributed from the Botanic Gar 



5589. Fruits of the Mango. Maneifera Indica (X 1-5). 

 See also Mangifera, Vol. II. 



dens at Castleton. A limestone soil seems to suit the- 

 orange best. At low elevations both the orange and the 

 grape fruit are rather sweet, but this fault gradually 

 disappears and the flavor improves the higher the ele- 

 vation,— the limit in Jamaica being somewhere about 

 4,000 feet for the orange, and 3,000 feet for the grape 

 fruit. The diseases and insect pests that attack the 

 citrous tribe in other countries are known in the West 

 Indies, and the roots of trees are also attacked by the 

 grub of a beetle, a species of Pra?podes. Trees that 

 have growu wild are not subject to disease or insect 

 pests. 



Pineapples.— Pineapples are indigenous in tropical 

 America, and although it is scarcely possible to say 

 whether they are truly native in any of the West In- 

 dian islands, they are spoken of as being grown not 

 very long after the discovery by Columbus. Joseph 

 Acosta, in his "Natural! and Morall Historie of the East 

 and West Indies" (London, 16C4), says: "The first 

 Spaniards named many things at the Indies with such 

 Spanish names as they did most resemble, as Pines . . . 

 although they be very different fruits to those which 

 are so-called in Spaine . . . The best [pines] are those 

 of the Islands of Barlovente [Greater Antilles]." The 

 Botanic Gardens in Jamaica are making experiments in 

 crossing different varieties. The Ripley is the general 

 favorite in Jamaica for its exquisite flavor, but the 

 Smooth Cayenne is being cultivated largely for export, 

 as its finer appearance ensures a higher price in the 



