CHAP. II. DESSERT FRUITS. "169 



CHAPTEK II. 



DESSEKT FKUITS. 



THE fruit-trees I have here described comprise not only those 

 that are met with in ordinary cultivation, but all besides, as far 

 as I have been able to ascertain, that have been introduced into 

 the country. Many of the latter have proved altogether worth- 

 less as regards their produce, and fully realise what has been 

 observed by Baron Humboldt : 



" It is striking to see plants in particular localities grow with the 

 greatest vigour without producing flowers. It is thus with Euro- 

 pean olive-trees, which have been planted for centuries between 

 the tropics near Quito ; and also in the Isle of France with walnut- 

 trees and hazel-nuts." * 



Moreover, it is a fact only too well known to all who have 

 cultivated a garden in Lower Bengal, that many fruit-trees prove 

 all but utterly unproductive there, which in other parts of India 

 produce fruits in abundance and of excellent quality. I need 

 but mention, for example, Apples, Pears, Plums, Figs, Grapes, 

 the China Flat-Peach, and Oranges. 



Much possibly might be done towards the improvement of our 

 Indian fruits by skill and contrivance. It remains yet to be 

 ascertained, for instance, whether or not the system, now much 

 practised in Europe, of dwarfing the trees by grafting upon 

 stocks of a different but allied species, might not answer equally 

 well here. The advantages of this practice are that the trees 

 come into bearing much sooner, occupy comparatively little 

 room, and may therefore be cultivated in very small gardens; 

 they are easily manured and root-pruned, and when ripening 

 their fruit may without difficulty be covered by nets to protect 

 them from the ravages of birds. 



Attached to the gardens of the Agri-Horticultural Society was 

 a large orchard of fine, vigorous, full-grown Mango-trees of the 

 sorts held in the highest estimation. These trees were almost 

 completely unproductive, and what little fruit they sometimes 



* ' Aspects of Nature,' p. 184. 



