112 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



frequently a single pedicel bears two flowers. These twin flowers & those that have 

 several pistils are very numerous & usually abort, so this tree yields little fruit even 

 though it blooms profusely. 



The leaves are thin, very small, bright green, very finely & not very deeply 

 denticulate. They're two inches long at most & about ten or eleven lignes wide. The stalk 

 is very slender and three or four lignes long. The leaves are very apt to be eaten by 

 insects. 



The fruit is round and shaped like an amber-colored cherry. It's fourteen lignes in 

 diameter by thirteen lignes high. It's flattened near the stalk, which is slender, four lignes 

 long, & inserts into a cavity that's smooth & not very deep. The top terminates in a small 

 elevation like a budding projection. At its tip there's a dried remnant of the style, like a 

 very tiny point. There's no groove at all dividing this fruit but merely a line only 

 discernible by its color. 



Its skin is very firm, smooth, sour, and is a slightly dark cherry color scattered 

 with very tiny whitish spots. 



Its flesh, very light yellow & transparent, becomes mushy when the fruit is very 

 ripe. 



Initially the juice is very sour and later on becomes quite tasteless. 



The pit is slightly rough; it adheres to the flesh in several places and terminates in 

 a sharp point. It's seven-&-a-half lignes long, fi ve-&-a-half lignes wide, and four lignes 

 thick. 



This fruit ripens around mid-August, & it's not much good either fresh or stewed. 

 So the Mirabolan tree should be listed as an ornamental tree rather than as a fruit tree. 



