ON INEDIBLE FRUITS 



gigantic Eucalyptus trees that grow to such im- 

 mense size in Australia and California. 



True myrtles are mostly natives of the Southern 

 hemisphere. There are representatives of the tribe, 

 however, that thrive in the tropical and sub-trop- 

 ical regions of our own hemisphere, among these 

 being the plants that grow the fruit known as the 

 Guava. 



The species of myrtle that chiefly concerns us 

 in the present connection is a tender shrub with 

 slender branches, known as the common myrtle, 

 and classified by botanists as Myrtus communis. 



There are numerous varieties of the shrub, 

 some of them bearing white oi- yellow or varie- 

 gated leaves. The tendency to produce these 

 variegated leaves may exist as a latent character- 

 istic in the green-leaved variety. I have grown a 

 beautiful variegated variety from the seed of the 

 ordinary green myrtle. As a rule the progeny of 

 the "sport" thus produced tends to revert to the 

 original type. And in point of fact it is observed 

 that all plants with variegated foliage have a very 

 strong tendency to produce green-leaved seedlings. 



The fruit of the common myrtle is small, black, 

 and hardly edible. 1 have imported many species 

 and varieties from Chili and Patagonia, however, 

 which, although appearing very much like the 

 common myrtle, bear fruit quite different in ap- 



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