Ii»i10 



MAMiOSTEEX 



MANGUOVIO 



COiUT.Uions boon calKvl llio ■■qiioon of I'niits" miuI ll>:it 

 Quivn Victoria olTorol ;i iirizo of ti-n poiiiuls for (ho 

 first fruits whirlt shoulil l>o brought to luT from liuhii, 

 thpro apjH'iirs to lio lunvlioro in oxistcuci- wliat wouM be 

 I'jilletl !i liirp' orclianl-of inaugostoons. It is liard to 

 mulerstaml why the culture of so dcUcious a fruit as tho 

 inatipostivu slioulil not have been better uiulerstooil 

 by horticulturists. 



In the Dutch K:ust Indies, Java ami Sumatra in 

 liarticular, it is i)lant«l by the tiatives in their kam- 

 jMniKs as a ilooryard tree. In Malacca anil the Straits 

 SottlenuMits there are a few -small orcharil plant infjs 

 ownicil chiefly by the Chinese. In Burliar (lanlcns in 

 the Nilsiri Hills of Madras I'resideiicy, British ln<lia, 

 a few trei's arc Kwwinp. The native chiefs of the Suhi 

 Archipelago have scattered plantings of mangostccn 

 troos. .\ few small plantings have been made in Ceylon, 

 notably a small orchard at Mirigama. Father D'.Vdran, 

 a notl^^ Bishop of Cochin-China, establisheil an orchard 

 of 300 to 400 trees at Lai Thiou not far from Saigon. 

 Trees of it have gri)wn ami fruited in the Botanic 

 Gardens of Jamaica, Trinidad, Dominica, and probably 

 elsewhere in the West Indies, and single 

 specimens have borne a few fruits on l\a\iai 

 and Maui Islands of the Hawaiian group. 

 The seeds from these successful trees havc 

 funiished luuidrcds of young i)lants for 

 small plantations which will soon come 

 into bearing. 



2321. Ttie mangosteen — ^."--t ■ 

 Garcinia Mangostana. f^ 



The reason for thi.s verj' inadeqtiate distribution of so 

 remarkable a domt^sticated fruit-tree seems to lie in the 

 'lifficulty which the young plants seem to have in estab- 

 li.shing themselves. If the seedlings are not shaded, the 

 first pair of young leaves is generally injured and the 

 plants stunted or even killed outright . It is t hought that 

 hortieulturiHts do not yet understand the root-system 

 of the magnf)steen and that when it is understood, ;i 

 va«t exten-sion of the culture of this fruit will take place. 

 Thi.a may eorne about through the use of stocks which 

 are les.s particmlar in their soil-reqtiirements. Cico. Oli- 

 ver's experiments have proved that the in;ingosteen can 

 be succes-sfully inarched upon a number- of the related 

 species of the same genus. On Garcinia xanlhochyiiiu-f, 

 which is a much more vigorous tree and grows on many 



types of soil, and is apparently (|uileat home m Hawaii, 

 Natal, Madeira, ('uba, and many other localities in the 

 subtropics it seems to grow successfully. As Kit) species 

 of garcinias havealrea<ly been described, the probability 

 is great of finding a suitable stock for the mangosteen. 

 The best orchards of niangoslcen in ( 'cylon an<l Sin- 

 gajiore have been established on soils characterized by a 

 high clay con! ml, combined with a large i)ercentage of 

 I'oarse in.'iterial, with a very small amoimt of silt, and 

 upon locations where the water-table comes to within 

 ('( feet of the surface. The impression is current that 

 the mangosteen re(]uires a wet but wc'U-tlrained soil 

 and a very htirnid atmosjjhere. While the former 

 statement appears to be true, the latter is not so, for 

 the tree which has fruited on the Island of Kauai is in a 

 dry but irrigated part of that island, with only 1) inches 

 of rainfall, where it has to be irrigated twice a month. 

 The diseases of the mangosteen are not yet known. 

 It is likely to have its own s])ecific diseases, and wlien 

 transplanted to new enviromnents, may be attacked by 

 new i)arasites. Fniits are frcciuently found with drop.s 

 of yellow gamboge inside which make them unpalatable, 

 but whether this is really a disease or merely the result 

 f)f external bruises, caused liy the fruits being knocked 

 about by heavy winds when nearly mature, will have 

 to be determined liy exijcriment. 



.Vlt hough the mangosteen is a very delicate fruit, 

 it has an exceedingly thick tough rind, and on this 

 account it is likely to be a good shipper. Fruits which 

 were sent in cold storage to Wash- 

 mgton from Trinidad were excellent 

 when eaten twenty-one days later, 

 even though they had then been 

 out of cold storage over a week. The 

 fact that when one of 

 a shiimient of fruits 

 decays, its rind hard- 

 ens instead of becom- 

 ing soft, is an im- 

 portant point in its 

 favor. 



Just how much cold 

 the mangosteen can 

 stand has not yet 

 been determined. 

 Repeated attempts to 

 grow it m Florida and California have failed, 

 although, for that matter, many attempts in 

 the tropics have been unsuccessful. The 

 limited experience which horticulturists have 

 had with it seems to indicate that it will not 

 stand frost. It is apiiarently a strictly tropi- 

 cal tree, moisture-loving and more or less 

 shade -toleriuit when young, adapted to 

 regions of heavy rainfall; Porto Rico and 

 Panama are untpawtionably excellent places 

 in which to cxjieriment with its culture. 

 When one considers that so far no selection of varie- 

 ties of the mangosteen has been made, notwithstanding 

 the fact that practically seedless fruits are of frequent 

 occurrence, and further that the tree belongs to a large 

 g(!mis of fruit-bearing trees, at least fifteen of which are 

 knf)wn to bear edible fruit, some of them as large as 

 sm.all melons, and that these are scattered in Australia, 

 the Malay region. South China, Africa, Brazil, and 

 C(!ntral America, some of them being able to withstand 

 light frosts, it becomes evident that in the develojinient 

 antl bn^eding of the mangosteen and in the discovery of 

 a suitable stock for it, there lies a most promising field 

 for horticultural research. Davii> F\\incuii,n. 



MANGROVE. A name applied to certain small 

 trees that grow along tropical and semi-tropical sea- 

 coasts and produce many trunks or rooting shoots 

 wh(Teby the plant holds its jjlaee or marches on tide- 

 flats. The name is usually restri(^tc<i to liliiztiplmra 



