THE MANGOSTEEN AND ITS RELATIVES 395 



tree is due to the difficulty which young plants have in estab- 

 lishing themselves, and he believes that a vast extension of 

 mangosteen culture will take place when the root-system of 

 this tree is thoroughly understood. "This may come about 

 through the use of stocks which are less particular in their 

 soil requirements. George Oliver's experiments have proved 

 that the mangosteen can successfully be inarched upon a 

 number of the related species of the same genus." Thus, on 

 Garcinia xanthochymus , a vigorous and hardy species, it has 

 done remarkably well. Since more than 150 species of Garcinia 

 are known, there should be excellent possibilities of obtaining 

 a stock-plant which will produce robust mangosteen trees 

 on soils where they will not grow successfully on their own 

 roots. 



The mangosteen does not withstand frost, but the behavior 

 of trees in Cuba and elsewhere shows that it is not injured by 

 merely cool weather; that is, the constantly high temperatures 

 of the equatorial belt are not essential to its success. Like the 

 breadfruit and a few other strictly tropical species, it does not 

 like temperatures below 40 or thereabouts. In Ceylon and 

 Singapore the best orchards are on soils having a high clay- 

 content, combined with plenty of coarse material and a small 

 amount of silt, and where the water-table stands about six feet 

 below the surface. " The impression is current," says Fairchild, 

 " that the mangosteen requires a wet but well-drained soil and a 

 very humid atmosphere. While the former statement appears 

 to be true, the latter is not so, for the tree which has fruited on 

 the island of Kauai (Hawaii) is in a dry but irrigated part of 

 the island, with only six inches of rainfall, where it has to be 

 irrigated twice a month." 



The observations made by Fairchild during his studies of 

 mangosteen culture in the Orient are of such importance that 

 it is worth while to reproduce some of them here. He writes of 

 his visit to W. H. Wright at Mirigama, Ceylon : 



