CHAPTER XLI. 



THE LOQUAT. 



THE Loquat (Eriobotrya or Photinia Japonica), sometimes 

 called Japan plum, a small evergreen tree, with long and 

 broad, serrated, dark green, roughened, and wavy leaves, is 

 one of the most desirable both for ornament and fruit. The 

 blossoms, freely produced in terminal panicles, are white and 

 deliciously fragrant. 

 They begin opening 

 in August, and from 

 that time until De- 

 cember the air is 

 laden with their rich 

 perfume. The fruit, 

 of a creamy yellow, 

 resembling in shape 

 a small apple, round 

 or pyriform, and 

 growing in compact 

 bunches like grapes, 

 ranges from an inch 

 to an inch and a half 

 in diameter, and con- 

 tains several large 

 seeds surrounded with a most piquant, juicy, and refreshing 

 sub-acid pulp. Ripening from February till May, when other 

 small fruits are scarce, and bearing transportation well, it 

 ought to be plentiful in our Northern markets, where it is 

 as yet scarcely ever seen. In Louisiana and other Gulf 

 States it forms a good substitute for the cherry, which does 

 not bear well in that latitude, and which it somewhat re- 

 sembles in flavor, but to which it is superior for jellies, pies, 

 and preserving, having all the richness of the cranberry with- 

 out its asperity. 



667 



FlG. 816. Loquat. 



