TROPICAL FRUITS 207 



be spacious, well glazed, and ventilated as for forced peaches. The border 

 should occupy the whole area and be deep, well drained, with about 2 feet of 

 good loamy soil. In this the trees can be planted at suitable distances apart 

 and treated as ordinary orchard-house trees. Fan-trained trees may occupy the 

 sides or walls of the house. 



The trees require careful pruning so as to obtain short sturdy wood and an 

 open form of tree, better results being thus obtained than from trees allowed to 

 grow dense. Strong woody shoots, if not required to build up the framework 

 of the tree, should be cut out, or, better still, they should be stopped early to 

 prevent waste. 



Oranges require all the sunshine they can get. It is a good plan to start 

 the house early, say the first week in March, by maintaining a temperature of 

 from 50 to 70 degs., the latter with sun-heat ; from May onwards the tem- 

 perature may be 10 or 15 degs. higher than this. A good syringing twice a 

 day should be given. The plants must be kept free of insects, and with this 

 object some growers syringe them once a week with a weak solution of parafEn. 



If the plants are grown in pots or tubs they require the same treatment as 

 those planted out, but of course close attention must be given to the condition 

 of the soil. Half-inch bones and old mortar mixed with the soil serve to keep 

 the latter open and also afford nourishment. Plants that have grown too large 

 or become leggy and unsightly may be reduced and renovated by cutting them 

 back in the spring and keeping them close and moist for a few weeks. This 

 induces them to break freely. 



CUSTARD APPLE 



The custard apple is the fruit of Anona squamosa, a magnolia-like bush or 

 small tree about 15 feet high, copiously branched, and clothed with leathery 

 oblong leaves, glaucous beneath, in the axils of which are borne in spring 

 solitary greenish fleshy flowers about i inch across. The fruit is egg-shaped, 

 3 inches or 4 inches long, and is composed of a number of scale-like ovaries, 

 which are confluent and form a fruit suggestive of a globe artichoke or a pine- 

 cone. When ripe it is fleshy, the pulp yellowish, and so soft that it is difficult 

 to handle a ripe fruit without squashing it. The flavour has been likened to 

 that of raspberries and cream. In tropical countries the custard apple is a 

 favourite fruit. Although originally from tropical America, it is now wild or 

 cultivated in both hemispheres. In India it ranks with the mango as a culti- 

 vated fruit, ripening in May. Imported fruits must necessarily be gathered 

 long before they are ripe. The trees are propagated from seeds, and they grow 

 so rapidly that they begin to fruit when about three years old. 



There is a tradition in India that the god Ram and his wife Sita decided 

 each to create a fruit that should excel all others. Ram produced the Ramphal 

 (/iAtf/= fruit), or bullock's heart {Anona reticulata), and Sita the Sitaphal, or 

 custard apple {A. squamosa). The former is not considered palatable by 

 Europeans, although it is eaten by the natives. In the West Indies another 



