424 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



to be native to Borneo and other islands of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, but Sir Joseph Hooker considered that its distribution 

 as an indigenous plant probably did not extend to the Malay 

 peninsula. He thought that Durio malaccensis, Planch., 

 which grows in Malacca and Burma, might be the wild form of 

 the durian. 



The region in which the tree is commonly found extends from 

 the northern Federated Malay States through the Dutch East 

 Indies and up into the Philippines as far as Mindanao. A single 

 tree is known to have fruited in Hawaii, and another in Dominica, 

 British West Indies. The species is seen occasionally in Ceylon 

 and other tropical countries, but outside of the Malayan region 

 its cultivation is limited mainly to botanic gardens. 



The name durian (or dorian) is the only one by which this 

 fruit is known to Europeans. Yule and Burnell say : " Malay 

 duren, Molucca form durivan, from duri, a thorn or prickle 

 (and an, the common substantival ending; Mr. Skeat gives 

 the standard Malay as duriyan or durian)." Various spellings 

 of the word are found in the early writers. 



An analysis made in the Philippines by W. E. Pratt shows the 

 fruit to contain : Total solids 44.5 per cent, ash 1.24, acids 0.1, 

 protein 2.3, invert sugar 4.8, sucrose 7.9, and starch 11.0. In 

 the Philippine Journal of Science, November, 1912, O. W. 

 Barrett writes: "The chemical body which is responsible for 

 the very pronounced odor is probably one of the sulfur com- 

 pounds with some base perhaps related to that in butyric acid ; 

 it is not an oil nor a sugar, not a true starch nor an inulin, but 

 according to Dr. W. E. Pratt it is a substance new to the organic 

 chemist. The pulp contains a compound w r hich, it is believed, 

 is related to erythrodextrin, but seems to exist, if such, in a new 

 form in this fruit." 



In its climatic requirements the durian is tropical, probably 

 strictly so. The few experiments made indicate that it will not 

 succeed anywhere on the mainland of the United States. It 



