CHAP. II. DESSERT FRUITS. 235 



the taste, however, it is very acid, with a flavour like that of an 

 exceedingly bad Mango. 



Not much can be done with it in the way of cooking, either 

 as a preserve or in a pudding. Don speaks of it notwithstanding 

 in high commendation, and says that in its native locality it "is 

 esteemed one of the most wholesome of fruits, and has almost 

 the flavour of the Pine-apple ; that it not only assuages thirst, 

 but is given to the sick without distinction." He adds likewise 

 that it has a " somewhat nauseous, fetid smell." Whence it 

 would almost seem that the fruit grown with us cannot be that 

 described under the same name by Don. 



I am told by those who say they have often sown them, that 

 the stones never germinate. Young plants are usually obtained 

 by grafting upon seedlings of S. mangifera, the common country 

 Umra. 



Spondias mangifera. 



HOG- PLUM. 



Umra. 



A coarse-looking jungul tree, native of India, with leaves like 

 those of the Walnut, which fall off in the Cold season, when the 

 tree remains bare and unsightly for two or three months. 



The fruit, which ripens in October, when largest is of the size 

 of a goose's egg, of a rich olive green, mottled with yellow and 

 black, with but a trifling degree of scent, and none of the quince- 

 like odour of the other species. The inner part nearest the 

 rind is rather acid, but that being removed, the part nearest the 

 stone is sweet and eatable. But withal it is not an agreeable 

 fruit. 



It is propagated readily by sowing the stones. 



OXALIDACE^E. 



Averrhoa carambola. 



Kumrunga. 



A small tree, native of Moluccas; common in the gardens 

 about Calcutta; grows to the height of from fourteen to twenty 

 feet ; very beautiful and ornamental for its foliage alone, but 



