184 NOTES ON TROPICAL FRUITS. 































tourist; and again, most tropical fruits do not con 
themselves to the taste on first acquaintance. If by 
ing a few random notes of a traveller who considers 
and vegetables the staple of life, especially in the trop 
ccbiaibadienn from other sources may be provoked, s 
pleasing sketches of the many delicious products of 
warmer regions of the globe may result. 
Gotonia antiquorum, var. esculenta,—Kalo or 1 
The kalo of the Pacific Islanders is one of the few trop 
productions that require great labor and constant cate 
bring it to perfection. In its wild state, like most of 
Araceæ, the kalo has a small corm, or bulb, surmounted b 
few arrow-shaped leaves with fleshy stems. It looks m 
like the Calla of our conservatories. The corm is acrid, a 
blisters incautious lips. What can have first suggested 1t 
use as food? To cultivate it, ponds are prepared b; 
fully digging the soil and working it with the feet to 
depth of some eighteen inches. The ponds are sult 
by a low wall or dyke, and usually cover from a few 
yards to half an acre. Water is supplied by an aqueduct 
The upper part of the corm, with the half-dev 
leaves, is cut off and planted in the mud, usually i 
about a foot apart, and water turned on enough to cov 
soil about an inch. Weeds and kalo then commence 2! a 
and it requires the constant care of the owner to kee 
former down until the kalo leaves cover the groui 
the kalo leaves unfold, and the bulb grows, more 
let into the pond, and it is sometimes a foot deep. ~ 
end of thirteen months the bulb has attained full sizes’ 
the yellow fragrant blossom appears. Tt is not nec 
gather it at once, and the usual way is to pull it as 2 
replanting the stems, so that a constant succession i 
up. One acre will furnish food for six men. 
When fully grown, the bulb is six inches or even 
in diameter, and the bright leaves have closely coy 
surface of the pond. The bulb is still as sorid 
