THE OUTLOOK FOR TROPICAL FRUITS 3 



and the coconut, the tropical fruits have received scientific 

 attention only when their culture has been brought northward 

 to the extreme limit of their zone, as, in the case of certain of 

 them, it has been in California and Florida. Even here their 

 study and improvement have only been undertaken in very 

 recent years ; many species, in fact, are still in the condition of 

 wild plants, so that it is no wonder their fruits are sometimes 

 looked on by northern horticulturists as almost without value. 

 The case is well put by Hartwig, who writes, in his work " The 

 Tropical World": 



"It may easily be imagined that the tropical sun, which 

 distills so many costly juices and fiery spices in indescribable 

 multiplicity and abundance, must also produce a variety of 

 fruits. But man has yet done little to improve by care and art 

 these gifts of Nature, and, with rare exceptions, the delicious 

 flavor for which our native fruits are indebted to centuries of 

 cultivation, is found wanting in those of the torrid zone. In 

 our gardens Pomona appears in the refined garb of civilization, 

 while in the tropics she still shows herself as a savage beauty, 

 requiring the aid of culture for the full development of her 

 attractions." 



The exceptions to this condition, however, are notable, and 

 scarcely so rare as Hartwig and others have believed. The 

 mango, in its finer Indian varieties, offers an example of im- 

 provement through selection and vegetative propagation which 

 equals that of the peach, if indeed the advance from wild to 

 cultivated forms has not been greater in the former than in the 

 latter fruit. Those who have tasted the luscious Pairi mango 

 of Bombay, or the Mulgoba as now grown in Florida, will 

 recognize the probable accuracy of this statement. 



Many other tropical fruits might be mentioned which 

 compare favorably with the best products of high cultivation in 

 the Temperate Zone. Who, that has had the opportunity of 

 judging, has not felt, as he lifted the snowy segments of the 



