chap, xx.] J DELICIOUS VEGETABLE. 477 



times made curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices ; 

 hut it is no way so good as simply baked. It may be 

 eaten sweet or savory. With meat and gravy it is a 

 vegetable superior to any I know, either in temperate or 

 tropical countries. With sugar, milk, butter, or treacle, it 

 is a delicious pudding, having a very slight and delicate 

 but characteristic flavour, which, like that of good bread 

 and potatoes, one never gets tired of. The reason why it is 

 comparatively scarce is, that it is a fruit of which the seeds 

 are entirely aborted by cultivation, and the tree can there- 

 fore only be propagated by cuttings. The seed-bearing 

 variety is common all over the tropics, and though the 

 seeds are very good eating, resembling chestnuts, the fruit 

 is quite worthless as a vegetable. Now that steam and 

 Ward's cases render the transport of young plants so easy, 

 it is much to be wished that the best varieties of this 

 unequalled vegetable should be introduced into our West 

 India islands, and largely propagated there. As the fruit 

 will keep some time after being gathered, we might then 

 be able to obtain this tropical luxury in Covent Garden 

 Market. 



Although the few months I at various times spent in 

 Amboyna were not altogether very profitable to me in the 

 way of collections, yet it will always remain as a bright 

 spot in the review of my Eastern travels, since it was there 

 that I first made the acquaintance of those glorious birds 



