164 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



locus standi* The fact is, in Ceylon, not only the 

 orange is gathered unripe, but all other fruit. I was 

 never more astonished than when I visited the Ceylon 

 markets. 



All the fruit I found was unripe. Even pine-apples, 

 which ought to be the glory of Ceylon, were unripe, 

 and worse flavoured than those grown in Philibeet. 

 The only fruit worth having, then, was the plantain, 

 and this is one of the few which can be gathered in 

 an unripe state and hung up to ripen, without losing 

 much flavour, although if cut too early, this also will 

 lose flavour. 



It should not be supposed, however, that people in 

 India are innocent of the vice of gathering fruit in its 

 unripe state. They everywhere do so, more or less 

 ist, because sometimes it pays them better to do so ; 

 2nd, because the longer they leave it on the tree, the 

 longer they have to watch it ; yd, if they do not 

 watch it, it is likely to be stolen, or eaten by parrots, 

 monkeys, &c. In the Etawah Jail Garden, the pur- 

 chaser of the fruit gathered all the Malta oranges in 

 October, in their green state. There was a mela (fair) 

 on, and he said he could get a good price for them. 

 The palate of the people of India has been spoilt, 

 because they have rarely had a chance of tasting a 

 delicious fruit, well ripened on the tree. The mango 

 and the plantain are perhaps exceptions, as they can 

 be ripened off the tree, and retain their flavour if not 

 plucked too early, although they often spoil mangoes 

 also by endeavouring to bring them too early into the 

 market. If a fruit is pluckedy^^ before it ripens, then 

 its own freshness enables it, off the tree, to continue 

 the change to full ripeness. 



* It may probably be a variety which is late in taking on colour. 

 The Nagpore variety, I think, colours earlier. 



