80 CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TORRID ZONE 



from fourteea to sixteen pounds. The fruit is generally heart- 

 shaped, with the broad base attached to the branch. The rind 

 is green, covered with small tubercles and scales, and encloses a 

 snow-white, juicy pulp, with many black kernels. Both the 

 fruit and the blossoms exhale a delightful odour. The tree is 

 about twenty feet high, and has a broad dull green crown. 



In the eastern hemisphere, the litchi, the mangosteen, and 

 the mango enjoy the highest reputation. 



The Litchi (Nephelium Litchi), a small insignificant tree, with 

 lanceolate leaves, and small greenish-white flowers, is a native of 

 China and Cochin-China, but its cultivation has spread over the 

 East and the West Indies. The plum-like scarlet fruit is gene- 

 rally eaten by the Chinese to their tea, but it is also dried in 

 ovens and exported. In order to obtain the fruit in perfection, 

 for the use of the Imperial Court, the trees, as soon as they 

 blossom, afe conveyed from Canton to Pekin on rafts, at a very 

 great trouble and expense, so that the plum may just be ripe on 

 their arrival in the northern capital. It is, however, to be feared 

 that the rebels have within the last few years deprived the 

 Emperor of his accustomed delicacy, unless the Kings of Nankin 

 are urbane enough to allows the Litchi-rafts to pass — a piece 

 of politeness which, from all we hear of them, is hardly to be 

 expected. 



The beautiful Mangosteen (Garcinia Mangostana), a native 

 of the Moluccas, and thence transplanted to Java, Siam, the 

 Philippines, and Ceylon, resembles at a distance the citron-tree, 

 and bears large flowers like roses. The dark brown capsular 

 fruit, about the size of a small apple, is described as of un- 

 equalled flavour — juicy and aromatic, like a mixture of 

 strawberries, raspberries, grapes, and oranges. It is said that 

 the patient who has lost an appetite for everything else still 

 relishes the mangosteen, and that the case is perfectly hope- 

 less when he refuses even this. 



The stately Mango {Mangifera indica) is frequently repre- 

 sented on the silk tissues of the Hindoos, who venerate, under 

 .the ugly form of the ape Huniman (Semnopithecus Entellus), the 

 transformed hero who first robbed the gardens of a Ceylonese 

 giant of its sweet fruit, and presented their forefathers with 

 this inestimable gift. The mango bears beautiful girandoles 

 of flowers, followed by large plum-like fruits, of which, how 



