CHAPTER XVI 

 MISCELLANEOUS FRUITS 



HAVING discussed in the different chapters the fruits that 

 are more or less closely related botanically and culturally, we 

 may now put the remaining kinds together in a single final 

 fascicle. Most of these fruits are of very minor importance 

 horticulturally. Here the reader will find accounts of the 

 durian, santol, langsat, carambola, bilimbi, tamarind, carissa, 

 ramontchi, umkokolo, ketembilla, white sapote, tuna, pitaya, 

 tree tomato, genipa. 



THE DURIAN (Plate XXIV) 

 (Durio zibethinus, Murr.) 



Except for the fact that a few trees have been planted in the 

 West Indies and elsewhere, and that P. J. Wester has shown 

 that it can readily be budded (thus paving the way for its 

 improvement), the durian occupies the same position to-day 

 which it held when first observed by Europeans in the fifteenth 

 century, that of a semi-cultivated fruit of great importance 

 to the inhabitants of the Malayan region. 



Its tardy dissemination has probably been due to the perish- 

 able nature of its seeds, making it difficult to carry the species 

 from one part of the tropics to another. It mus.t be admitted, 

 also, that the fruit is not one which has invariably met with a 

 favorable reception from Europeans. Because of its strong 

 disagreeable odor many do not like it, but others become 

 extremely fond of it. 



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