406 NOTES ON TROPICAL FRUITS. 
The manner of growth is sufficiently familiar. A cluster 
of stiff, pointed, serrated leaves, two or three feet long, from 
whose midst rises a stem of about equal height, bearing on 
its club-shaped extremity a tuft of small leaves, beneath 
which, on the expanded part of the stem, are the violet, 
mint-shaped flowers. As the flowers fall off, each one is 
succeeded by a slight protuberance, and these all swell to- 
gether, grow juicy, and at last the cone of the perfected 
fruit remains. The fruit varies in shape from an almost 
globular to a very acute conical form ; a species of the latter 
form is much cultivated in Peru, and has white flesh, al- 
though many prefer a small fruit of dark red color exter- 
nally, and yellow within. As the pine bears no seeds, it is 
propagated by cuttings ; the crown of leaves, when planted, 
requires nearly three years to come to maturity, while the — 
offshoots from the base bear in a twelvemonth. 
The fruit is eaten raw or cooked, and the juice makes an 
excellent wine, or may be fermented as beer. A ripe fruit 
is best eaten by breaking apart the little radiating cones of 
which it is composed, and sucking each one from the centre 
outwards. The fibre of the leaves is most beautiful and silky ; 
and is used largely in making the piña cloth. A field of wild 
pines, such as cover many of the islands in the Straits of 
Malacca, is almost as rough and inaccessible as & field of 
cacti, and the sharp stiff leaves are formidable weapons to the 
bare legs of invaders; but the bright fruit, peeping out pem 
and there all through the wilderness of spines, is quite suir 
cient to attract gatherers. At night, as the land-breeze 
sweep down over these islands, they take with them the 
exquisite fragrance to comfort the poor sailors who mey hay 
spent the day in scratching their bodies and tearing their 
clothes in getting pines. 
As an ornamental plant, the pine presides with queenly 
state in the beautiful Botanical Gardens at Singapot®» os 
its huge golden yellow fruit, often fifteen inches long * 
seven to ten in diameter, might well look down in 00 
ntempt n 

