FRUITS 



177 



Besides the ripe fruit, other parts of the plant are 

 supposed to be useful in various ways. If the unripe 

 fruit is fed to ducks and geese, it is expected to cause an 

 abundance of eggs. It is given to human beings as a 

 vermifuge. Soap is sometimes 

 made from the leaves. 



The milky juice contains a 

 substance like that in the juice 

 of the stomach, which can digest 

 the fibers in meat, and so make 

 the meat tender and easily di- 

 gestible. There are many va- 

 rieties of this nourishing fruit. 



Papaya is always reproduced 

 by seed, and may mature in as 

 short a time as nine months. 

 The fruit should be produced 

 throughout the year. Fl(; 1I& Pap;lva tiee fn fruit 



CITRUS FRUITS 



History. Citrus is a genus of fruit trees, including 

 all the kinds of oranges, lemons, limes (cabuyao), and 

 pomelos, or lukban. As articles of commerce, these are 

 the most important of tropical fruits; but the lands fore- 

 most in their production, Italy and California, are not 

 really tropical. A number of species of citrus are culti- 

 vated ; but they have been so mixed in cultivation, and 

 so many new forms have been produced, that it is no 

 longer possible to state what, or how many, the wild 



