228 GAKDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



perfume the air. I perceived no very powerful fragrance in the 

 fruits I used to gather from my garden in Ferozepore. 



The Citron is usually propagated by layering ; the plants in 

 consequence remain dwarf, with a sprawling habit, and witli 

 their fruit hanging close to the ground. It would seem a far 

 preferable plan to bud or graft it upon the Pumelo stock ; a 

 handsome tree would thus be obtained, which would produce its 

 ornamental fruits up on high, well exposed to view. 



In Assam a curious plan is adopted to bring the Citron to 

 perfection. When the fruit is as yet but small, the branch that 

 bears it is bent down, so that the fruit may be lowered into a 

 large earthen vessel with narrow aperture, sunk for the purpose 

 in the ground. The fruit which, the natives say, if left in its 

 natural position on the tree would never become large, confined 

 in that situation grows to a prodigious size, and completely fills 

 the vessel. When extracted from the vessel, which of course 

 must needs then be broken, it diffuses a wondrous perfume* 



MELIACE^E. 

 Lansium domesticum. 



LANGSAT OR LANSEH. 



Native of Java and of the Moluccas. 



Mr. Low in his work on Borneo describes the fruit of this tree 

 as " pulpy, aromatic, and delicate, produced in bunches from 

 the stem and branches of the tree." And Dr. Ward says of it : 

 " This delightful fruit is the produce of a large tree. It grows 

 in clusters : each is about the size of a cricket-ball. The brownish 

 thin skin being broken displays the pulp in six cloves of a plea- 

 santly acid taste, enclosing a greenish kidney-shaped seed. It 

 is by many reckoned the finest fruit in the Peninsula. The 

 month of July is the season at Malacca in which it is had in 

 greatest perfection."* Dr. Voigt mentions the plant as existing 

 in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, but doubts whether it has 

 ever flowered. I understood from the malees that two trees 

 were growing there in Dr. Wallich's time which bore fruit abun- 

 dantly, but that they died long since. 



* 'Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India,' by J. Caineroh. Appendix i. 



