MANC.IFERA 



MANGIFERA 



198.') 



short, stout pedicels; sepals broadly ovate, pubesnent; 

 petals erect, linear, eoiicavc, purplish; disk shghtly 

 lol>ed; perfect stamen 1, the imperfect ones reduced to 

 teeth; style sU-nder: fr. oblong-obovate. Malacca and 

 other Malayan islands, — The frs. are eaten by the 

 natives, bill are said to be very poor. 



verticillata, Rob. Baijno. A large tree, 50 ft. or 

 more in height: Ivs. in whorls of 4, narrowly elliptic- 

 obovate to obovate, glabrous, about 4-6 in. long, 2-3 

 in. broad; petiole 1-1 '2 'i'- long: panicles 8-12 in. 

 long, toinentose; fls. on stout, tomentose pedicels; 

 petals narrowly oblanceolate, bluish, margins inroUed; 

 fertile stamen 1, staminotles 4, irregularly shaped: fr. 

 oblong-oval to pjTiform, 4 '2-6 in. long, yellowish 

 green; stone large, very fibrous. — A recently described 

 species from the southern Philippines. Its fr., which 

 ripens in Aug. and Sept. is described by Wester as 

 "very juicy, rich, subacid, quite aromatic, of excellent 

 flavor, partaking of the flavor of the apricot and soursop 

 combined." It is thought to be of considerable horti- 

 cultural value. 



The mango. 



To millions of persons living within the tropics, the 

 mango is of greater importance than is the apple to 

 those of temperate North America. While this is 

 especially true in southern Asia, where the mango has 

 been grown from time immemorial, the last two cen- 

 turies have seen the tree widely disseminated through- 

 out the tropical regions of the New World, and playing 

 an important role in the dietary of the inhabitants. In 

 its finer varieties the mango is certainly worthy of a 

 place among the world's best fruits; for beauty of 

 coloring, delicate subtle aroma, and piquancy of taste 

 it has few equals. Yet it must be remembered that it is 

 only among the choicest varieties that these charac- 

 ters are found, and the inferior, fibrous seedlings, which 

 have always constituted the larger part and are all too 

 frequently considered by visitors to the American 

 tropics as representative of the best to be found among 

 mangoes, have little in common with some of the superb 

 varieties of the Orient. 



DeCandoUe considered it probable that the mango 

 has been in cultivation 4,000 years. At the present 

 time it is found growing naturally in the tropical 

 Himalayan region, from Kmnaon to Bhutan, at alti- 

 tudes of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and in several other parts 

 of India, while it is cultivated extensively throughout 

 the peninsula, except in a few regions in which the 

 climatic conditions are unfavorable. References to the 

 mango in the early hterature of India are said to be 

 numerous, and it seems always to have been held in the 

 highest esteem and even veneration; its flowers are 

 employed in religious ceremonies, and in some places 

 annual celebrations are held in its honor. In the four- 

 teenth centurj-, the Turkoman poet, .\mir Khusru, 

 WTote in Persian verse, "The mango is the pride of 

 the garden, the choicest fruit of Hindustan; other 

 fruits we are content to eat when ripe, but the mango 

 is good in all stages of growth;" and the great Mughal 

 emperor, .\kbar, who reigned in the sixteenth century, 

 planted near Darbhanga the famous Lakh Bagh, an 

 orchard of 100,000 mango trees, some of which are 

 said by Maries to remain to this day. 



The dissemination of the mango throughout the 

 tropical world seems to have been rather slow, con- 

 si<lering the usefulness and irn|iortance of the fruit in 

 India, but the difficulties in transporting .seeds ami 

 plants in the early days, when travel by water was not 

 rapid, must be remembered. Credit is probably due 

 the Portuguese for carrying the mango to .\frica, and 

 later on to South .\merica, where it is thought to have 

 been first established in Brazil, but the date of its intro- 

 duction to this continent is not definitely known. 

 Within the eighteenth century it became scattered 



126 



throughout the West Indies and on the mainland of 

 Central America. At the present day it is foimd in 

 nearly every tropical region of the globe, and in some 

 places its culture has been extended into the subtropics; 

 thus it is grown in the Canary Islantls, Madeira, occa- 

 sionally along the shores of the Mediterranean, in 

 Austraha, northern Iiulia and the Persian Gulf region, 

 southern Brazil, and the southernmost part of the 

 United States. 



The English name "mango" is from the Portuguese 

 "manga," which is itself considered an adaptation of 

 the Tamil "man-kay" or "man-gay" which was formed 

 by the earliest Portuguese settlers in India. Some 

 writers consider that the Portuguese name had its 

 origin in the Malay "mangga" or "mangka," but Rum- 

 phius traces the introduction of the latter into the 

 Malay Archipelago from southern India, along with 

 the fruit itself. In northern India the name is "am" or 

 "amba," these forms or variations of them occurring 

 in very early literature; in Sanskrit it is "amra." In 

 the western hemisphere the common names are adapta- 

 tions of the Portuguese "manga" (the tree "man- 

 gueira"); thus it is called in both English and Spanish 



2320. Fruits of the mango, Mangif era indica. ( X K) 



"mango," in French "mangue" (the tree "manguier"), 

 in Italian "mango," in German "mango" (the tree 

 "mangobaum"), and in Dutch "mangga" (the tree 

 "manggaboom ") . 



The tree is evergreen, and varies greatly in height 

 and habit of growth. In India there are several kinds 

 which are low-growing, almost prostrate in habit, but 

 ordinarily the tree is erect, either with a broad, dome- 

 shaped, umbrageous crown, or else with a tall, oval, 

 more or le.ss open crown and ascending branches. On 

 <leep rich .soils the mango reaches immense propor- 

 tions; one specimen with a trunk 25 feet in circumfer- 

 ence and a spread of 125 feet has been measured in 

 Bahia, Brazil. A height of 70 feet is not infrequently 

 attained. Budded or grafted trees do not reach such 

 large proportions, neither do seedlings on shallow soils. 



The lanceolate deep green leaves are of leathery 

 texture, varying in length from to 16 inches or even 

 more, and when crushed emit an odor of turpentine, 

 pronounceil in some varieties and almost lacking in 

 others. Growth is made in periodic "flushes" from the 



