flo^khs and feuits of teees and shrubs. 151 



CHAPTER II.— UTILIZATION OF THE FLOWERS AND 

 FRUITS OF TREES AND SHRUBS. 



The abundance and quality of flowers and fruit depend upon the 

 exposure of the bearing trees to light. Some of the plants which 

 produce saleable fruit and flowers either grow naturally in open 

 places, or, being climbers, or trees towering above their conipani- 

 ons, require no help to obtain the necessary amount of light. In all 

 other cases thinnings must be made round every promising indivi- 

 dual, both before the bearing age in order to promote its growth, 

 and during this age to cause it to extend its crown and produce a 

 large crop of flowers and fruit. When possible, trees furnishing 

 valuable produce should be pruned just after a crop has been col- 

 lected. The extent to which the flowering and fructification of any 

 species should be encouraged will, of course, depend on the demand 

 to be met, the prices to be obtained, and the relative value from 

 both an economic and financial point of view, of the flowers or 

 fruit, or both, as compared with timber and firewood. 



In order to collect flowers and fruit, the ground under the trees 

 should be kept perfectly clean, as, even if the produce is to be 

 plucked off standing trees, a large proportion fit to be utilized will 

 always drop on the ground. Flowers and fruit that require to be 

 dried for the market should be at once spread out in an airy place 

 and turned from time to time in order to prevent fermentation. 

 They should also be preserved jrom rain and dew. "When it is the 

 seed that is wanted, the fruits should be treated as described in the 

 Manual of Sylviculture. Occasionally, only the kernels of hard 

 seeds find their way into the market ; the quickest way to get rid 

 of the shells is to pass the seeds between mill-stones kept sufiicient- 

 ly far apart to avoid breaking the kernel. When the shell is soft, 

 instead of the upper mill-stone, a properly moulded mass of stiff 

 clay may be used. 



Flowers and fruit serve various purposes. Some are eaten by 

 man or beasts, e.g., the flowers of the Bassias (eaten raw or cooked 

 after being dried ; also yielding by fermentation and distillation 

 a spirit resembling gin), BavJdnia variegata, &c., the fruit of 

 the olive, Salvadora, Cashew, Zizyphuses, Artocarpuses, Ac, the 

 seed of the Pinus Gerardiana, Buchanania latifolia, ^c. In years 

 of gregarious fructification, which are often years of drought and 



