FRAGRANCE AND FRUIT 



" The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it 

 was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one 

 wise." Holy Writ. 



WHILE the remnant of the crop of citrus fruits still hangs 

 on the trees, after providing refreshing food for six 

 months and more, the blooms which promise next 

 year's supplies decorate the branches. Is it not pleasing 

 to have such graceful promises before the burden of 

 the passing season has disposed of all its sweetness ? 

 Possibly these early flowers are destined to produce 

 fruit for the admiration of living things upon which the 

 gardener bestows anything but a welcome. It may 

 come to maturity just after the wet season, when flies 

 and moths feast and corrupt in riot which provokes to 

 wrath. Inconsequent feeders, they probe the fruit and 

 flit away after a sip which does not absorb a thousandth 

 part of its keen juices, or they use a comely specimen 

 in which to deposit eggs, which in the course of Nature 

 become grubs. All such infected fruit the trees abandon 

 until the ground is strewn with waste. Such disaster 

 happens when the air is favourable to the breeding of 

 quivering gauze wings ; but there comes a time when the 

 fruit suffers little or no ill, and then the heart of the 

 orchardist rejoices as does that of the fisher when the 

 wind comes up from the sea. Then does he accept fine 

 promises in good faith, for it has come to be the fashion 



46 



