2i6 THE FRUIT GARDEN 



desirable. The pulpy portion is slightly acid, very sweet, and aromatic, 

 suggestive of an apricot. In sub-tropical countries the fruit is a general 

 favourite, and it sometimes finds its wray to Covent Garden Market. Any 

 one who has lived in the tropics knows the value of the loquat as a dessert 

 fruit. It is a native of Japan and China, where it forms gnarled old specimen 

 trees. It was cultivated and fruited at Kew nearly a hundred years ago. It is 

 grown there still, both in the open air, where it is trained against a south wall, 

 growing vigorously, but never flowering ; and in the temperate house, where it 

 both flowers and fruits. The loquat is easily raised from seeds, or by grafting 

 on the quince, to which it is closely related. It grows rapidly, soon forming a 

 shapely evergreen shrub, but it requires to be improved in the quantity of 

 " meat " in its fruits ere it can win a place among fruit trees for the English 

 garden. There is a good illustration of it in the Transactions of the Horticultural 

 Society, iii. 299 (1820). 



Vanilla, The (see p. 214). 



