TROPICAL FRUITS 



TROPICAL FRUITS 



1863 



exported in it-e. The akcc niii^ht lie exjKirted if pre- 

 served. The part u^ed is tlie hirL2;e ui-illiis atttKdied to 

 tlie seed, and if is served as a relish witli meat dislies. 

 The LioverLun-'s plum is a fruit the size of a jj:reen-gai;e 

 and makes tine jellies. The eashew is useful wlien pre- 

 served, l>ut is too temier for export, Tlie larj^e seeds, 

 roasted and hottird for preservation, form one of the 

 liest tahle nuts known. The fi:uava ean only be exjiorteil 

 in the form of the well-known gna\'a .ielly. ^Vhen a. 

 good variety is to Imnd the P(.nnnie Cythere is an exeel- 

 lent and weil-tlavored table fruit. The granadilla makes 

 excellent iees. aiul the water lemon i.s niueh used as 

 dessert, having the appearanee and flavor of a huge rii>e 

 gooselierry, though generally soiuewhat sweeter, Mrti- 

 cocca hijiiga, or the genip, i.s a children's fruit, and is 

 seldom seen at tal)le. Like all similar fruits there has 

 praetieally been no seleidion, and a large amount of 

 variation appears. This is titv prominent in the genip. 

 Some are verN' aeid, while others aw delt(doush- sweet. 

 This variation, as sleiwn in set-dlings, is fully sulUeient 

 to aecomit for the di\'erse o|)inions as to the ([Ualities of 

 tropieal fruits. 



The eitn.uis triiies are, of eoiirse, s\il>-tropical fruits, 

 hut it is possible to grow them to great perfection in the 

 tropics. When grown upon the sour orange stork, the 

 trees are capable of reaching a large size, aiul will 

 attord regular crops. An excellent start has bei-n made 

 in many West Indian islamls in the cultivation of 

 grafted plants of the best kinds. 



Trees in tlie tropics usually have their regular season 

 of fruiting, hut many trees, such as the mango and the 

 orange, produce fruit out of season, or in the coolest 

 season of the year. Trees which fruit at such a season 

 are generally the most inferi<ir kinds. 



Most visitors to the tropics choose this season for 

 making their tour, and in consequence never have the 

 opportunity of seeing or tasting the best i|ualities of 

 the fruit produced, and only get inferior kinds, which 

 the regular resident would not trouble to eat. When a 

 mango is described as "all tow and turiHuitine," the 

 writers were writing truly of the ordinary "out of 

 season" mango, but all-the-year-round residents know- 

 that these kinds are as different from the selected varie- 

 ties as is the ciuinoe from a jargonelle or a pear or a 

 crab apple from a Ribstou pippin. j, fj. Hart. 



Another View oS Tropical Fruits. - The fruits most 

 grown for export from the West Indies are bananas, 

 oranges, grape fruit or pomelo, pineapples and cocoa- 

 nuts. Others that are prized, but not exported to any 

 extent, are mangoes, grapes, star-apples, naseberry or 

 sapodiUa, avocado pear, granadilla, cherimoya, sweet 

 sc^p and mangosteeii, 



Biiurnia. -There are bi-tween 20 and TiO different va- 

 rieties of banana, and about half as many of the plan- 

 tain, which is the form of banana used as a vegetable. 

 The enormous export of over 8,000,000 ounches of ba- 

 nanas annually from .Jamaica is almost i-ntirely of one 

 particular varietv, which goes under varicuis names, ^ 

 "Jamaica," "Martinique," "Gros Michel," etc, A small 

 quantity of a red - skinned variety is oci-asionally ex- 

 ported. It is prized rather for its color and etfeetive- 

 ness in a dish of fruit than for its quality. There are 

 others, such as "Laily's Finger," which are superior in 

 flavor to the Jamaica', and are destined to obtain in tiim^ 

 special prices in the markets. These superior varieties 

 have mostly been collected by the Royal (iardens. Kew, 

 from India, Java. Straits Settlements, etc., .aiiil have 

 been sent out from time to time to the Botanic Gardens 

 of the West Indies. 



The soil most suitable for banana culture is a deep 

 loam with a large proportion of humus. Good drainage 

 is essential. Bananas grow well under irrigation, but 

 the application of the water must be carefully watched. 

 The only disease that is known is a species of Maras- 

 mius, a 'fungus wdiich attacks the petiole of the leaf. 

 It has not done much harm, and in fact has not attracted 

 anv notice except in Trinidad. Insects do not interfere 

 with plant f.r fruit. Nematode worms are known m 

 other countries to have caused great destruction, but no 

 cases are reported from any part of tropical America. 



Citrons Fruits (more properly sub-tropical). -Until a 

 few years ago no attention was paid to the cultivation 



of any of the citrous fruits: tht.'y sinqdy grew wild,— 

 seeds were dropped li>' birds, and wherever the soil 

 was suitable 1 1'ees sprung up. Naturally many hybrids 

 and inferior kinds exist, but the great mass of the trees 

 ha\e *'onie true, and the fruit is (d' excellent quality. 

 SiiM.-e Idorida. has siilTered so much in its orange-groves, 

 cultivation iti the ^\'est Indies has become general, and 

 all the bist kinds of Ciiiits ha\'e been inqiorted from 

 Florida, ('alif<uuiia and I'higlaiid. In Jamaica the navel 

 orange was inlroduee.l diiM-cd from Bahia many years 

 ago, and there is good e^ddence that it occurs sjtontan- 

 eously in th<' island at the most favoratile elevation for 

 the orange, — about 2,;i00 feet. A natural hybrid between 

 the sw-eet orange and the taugierine is also known in the 

 same <lis1rict. Tht* general excellence of the orange in 

 Jamaic.a is partly due to the large numliers of grafted St, 

 Michaels that ^^'ere distributed from the Botanic Gar- 



2589, Fruits of the Maneo, Mangifera Indica (X 1-5). 

 See also Alangiftra, Vol. II. 



dens at Castleton. A limestone soil seems to suit the 

 <. range best. At low elevations both the orange and the 

 grape fruit are rather sweet, but this fault gradually 

 disappears and the flavor improves the higher the ele- 

 vation, -the limit in Jamaica being somewhere about 

 4.000 feet for the orange, and :i.000 feet f(u- the grape 

 fruit. The diseases and insetd pests that attack the 

 (Mtrous tribe in other countries are known in the West 

 ludies, and the roots of trees are also attacked by the 

 grub of a beetle, a spe(des of Pra'podes. Trees that 

 have grown wdld are not subject to disease or insect 

 pi-sts.' . , 



Piiif((jtpl,-s.-P\ucap\th-y. are indigenous m tropical 

 America, and although it is scarc(dy possible to say 

 wdiether they are truly native in any of the West In- 

 dian islands", they are' spoken of as being grown not 

 very long after the discovery by Columbus, Joseph 

 Acosta, in his "Naturall and Morall Historie of the East 

 and West Indies" (London, 1004), says: "The first 

 Spaniards named many things at the Indies with such 

 Spanish names as they 'did most resemble, as Pines . . . 

 although they be ve'ry different fruits to those which 

 are so-called in Spaine" , . . The best [pines] are those 

 of the Islands of Barlovente [Greater Antilles]," The 

 Botanic Gardens in Jamaica are making experiments in 

 crossing different varieties. The Ripley is the general 

 favorite in Jamaica for its exquisite flavor, but the 

 Smooth Cayenne is being cultivated largely for export, 

 as its finer appearanee ensures a higher price in the 



