422 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



In its native home the durian becomes a large tree. It has 

 obovate-oblong leaves 6 to 7 inches long, leathery in texture, 

 shining on the upper surface and scaly on the lower. The 

 flowers, which are produced in cymes, have a bell-shaped 

 five-lobed calyx and five oblong petals. The fruit is oval in 

 form, 6 to 8 inches long, covered externally with short woody 

 protuberances. It is five-valved, and within each compart- 

 ment are several seeds surrounded by clear pale brown custard- 

 like pulp of strong gaseous odor and rich bland taste. The 

 following description by a distinguished durian-eater, Alfred 

 Russel Wallace, 1 gives an excellent idea of this remarkable fruit : 



"The banks of the Sarawak River are everywhere covered with 

 fruit trees, which supply the Dyaks with a great deal of their food. 

 The Mangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, 

 are all abundant; but most abundant and most esteemed is the 

 Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which 

 both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned 

 superior to all others. The old traveller Linschott, writing in 1599, 

 says : ' It is of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavor all 

 the other fruits of the world, according to those who have tasted it.' 

 And Doctor Paludanus adds : ' This fruit is of a hot and humid 

 nature. To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rotten 

 onions, but immediately they have tasted it they prefer it to all other 

 food. The natives give it honorable titles, exalt it, and make verses 

 on it.' When brought into a house the smell is often so offensive that 

 some persons can never bear to taste it. This was my own case when 

 I first tried it in Malacca, but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the 

 ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed 

 Durian eater. 



"The Durian grows on a large and lofty forest tree, somewhat 

 resembling an elm in its general character, but with a more smooth 

 and scaly bark. The fruit is round or slightly oval, about the size of a 

 large coconut, of a green color, and covered all over with short stout 

 spines, the bases of which touch each othe*r, and are consequently 

 somewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. 

 It is so completely armed, that if the stalk is broken off it is a difficult 

 matter to lift one from the ground. The outer rind is so thick and 

 tough, that from whatever height it may fall it is never broken. From 

 the base to the apex five very faint lines may be traced, over which 



1 The Malay Archipelago. 



