

THE LOQUAT 47 j 



which may be called red, white and blue, unless one desires to be 

 perfectly accurate, in which case the blue would have to be 

 changed to purple. The petals are unusually thick and fleshy and 

 are very sweet to the taste. The highly perfumed fruit, about 

 one and one-half to two inches or more in length, comes in Novem- 

 ber. The flavor is delicious, like the strawberry but lacking the 

 acid. The seeds are very small, almost unnoticeable; quite a con- 

 trast in this respect to the guava. 



THE GRANADILLA 



The granadilla is the term applied to the edible fruit of a species 

 of passion vine (Passiflora edulis) which is quite hardy, and is grow- 

 ing in different parts of the State. The fruit is about the size of a 

 small hen's egg, purple exterior when ripe, the thin, brittle shell 

 inclosing a mass of small seeds covered with a brilliant yellow 

 pulp, mildly acid, and of very agreeable flavor. Very good jelly 

 has been made of the fruit. Another passion vine with large pink 

 flowers is very widely distributed in California, and bears a large, 

 yellowish-brown fruit with edible pulp. 



: , .? ' 



THE JUJUBE 



The jujube (zyziphus jujube), from the fruit of which the deli- 

 cate paste of the confectioner is, or should be, made, was intro- 

 duced by G. P. Rixford in 1876, and is fruiting regularly and freely 

 in several parts of the State. The plant is easily grown from seed 

 or cuttings. The orange-red berries are produced three years from 

 planting, and ripen in November and December. They are edible 

 fresh or dried. As yet the fruit has not been turned to commercial 

 account. 



THE LOQUAT 



The loquat (Eriobotrya Japonicd) is widely grown in California 

 as an ornamental plant, and a small amount of fruit is profitably 

 marketed each year. During the last twenty years a very marked 

 improvement in loquats has been achieved by painstaking effort 

 by Mr. C. P. Taft, of Orange, whose experience is freely drawn 

 upon in this chapter. Mr. Taft's work has demonstrated that this 

 fruit is susceptible of improvement in size, flavor, appearance, in 

 bearing habit of the tree, and in direction of early and late varieties, 

 and in all these directions not only in the line of better fruit, but 

 fruit which commands in the market several times the value of the 

 common types. Upon the basis of the new varieties the season for 

 the loquat is from February to June, the bulk of the crop coming 



