CHAP. II. DESSERT FRUITS. 223 



factory plants. The usual and far better way is to graft a bud 

 upon seedlings of the Lemon raised for the purpose. The seeds 

 germinate in about a fortnight, and the plants will be ready for 

 grafting upon in the course of the same year."* 



Dr. Bonavia considers best for stocks seedlings of the common 

 country sour Orange, when about a year old; and mentions 

 February and March as by far the most favourable time for the 

 operation of budding/I" 



Citrus decumana. 



PUMELO POMPOLEON POMPELNOSE. 



Batavee Neeboo Chukotura. 



This fruit, which grows to such perfection in some parts of 

 Lower Bengal, I do not remember to have seen at all in the north 

 of India. Neither in the Shalemar Gardens, near Lahore, nor 

 in the Bam-Bagh at Umritsur, so rich in trees of the Orange 

 and Sweet Lime, was the tree to be found. In my garden at 

 Ferozepore I had several young plants, brought by a native 

 nurseryman from Cawnpore, but they made during the two or 

 three years I possessed them but very slow growth. 



The fruit grown in Calcutta and its immediate neighbourhood 

 that I have tasted has been mostly tough and dry, and poor in 

 flavour, but that from some of the gardens about Chinsurah and 

 Hooghly has been pulpy and full of juice of the most agreeable 

 flavour. The fruit is, however, often condemned when the fault 

 lies in its having been gathered too soon. It is the better for 

 being left as long as possible on the tree. It is in season in 

 October and November. 



Dr. Macfadyen in his * Flora of Jamaica ' describes two 

 varieties : J 



" a. Maliformis, of which the fruit is globose, with the pulp of a 

 pale pink colour, approaching to a very light yellow. 



" (3. Pyriformis : of this the fruit is more or less pear-shaped, 

 and the pulp of a crimson colour more or less intense. This 

 variety is the most esteemed, being sweet and juicy, and having 

 only in a slight and palatable degree the acidity which abounds in 

 the first." 



* * Le Bon Jardinier ' pour 1866, p. 378. 



t ' Journal of Agri.-Hort. Society,' vol. xiv. p. 199, where see an excellent 

 practical paper upon the cultivation of Malta Oranges. + Vol. i. p. 131. 



