POMONA COLLEGE JOURNAL 



o/' ECONOMIC BOTANY 



Volume II FEBRUARY 1912 Number 1 



Feijoa Sellowiana; Its History, Culture 

 and Varieties 



BY F. W. POPENOE 

 WEST INDIA GARDENS, ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA 



Among the fruits which liave been offered as commercial possibilities in Cali- 

 fornia there are few wliich possess such intrinsic merit as the one here considered. 



The Feijoa is comparatively new to horticulture. It has been in cultivation 

 but twenty years, and in this country scarcely ten. Therefore our knowledge of 

 the plant and its requirements is as yet elementary, and tlie important subject of 

 varieties, in particular, is in a chaotic state. 



But here is a shrub, unusually valuable as an ornamental — so much so that 

 it is grown as a pot plant for the beauty of its foliage and flowers in European 

 conservatories. To this attractiveness, and greatly overshadowing it, is added 

 the value of the fruit — of oval shape, greenish in color, highly perfumed, and 

 with a flavor indescribably delicate and delicious. Supplementing these qualities, 

 and augmenting them, is its hardiness. The Feijoa will grow and thrive not only 

 in California, but throughout the entire coast region, and across the continent 

 from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in the southern belt embraced within the Gulf 

 States. Certainly few ))lants can offer such an appeal to public favor. Everyone 

 who is familiar with the Feijoa to a suffrcient degree, has the greatest confidence 

 in its future. It is a fruiting shrub of sterling excellence. As a commercial fruit 

 it offers great promise. Its admirable shi])])ing and keeping (jualities justify for 

 it an expectation that it will become a market fruit of the first class. 



History of the Feijoa in Europe and North America 

 Upon returning from South America in 1890, the late Dr. Edouard Andre, 

 one of the mo.st noted French botanists and horticulturists of his day, brought 

 with him from La Plata, Brazil, a layered plant of Feijoa Sellowiana. This speci- 

 men was set out in his garden. Villa Colombia, on the Riviera, and bore fruit in 

 1897. In the following year Dr. Andre j)ublished in the Revue Horticole, of 

 which he was editor, a description of this plant, together with a colored plate 

 showing the foliage, flowers, and fruit. From the behavior of his plant at Villa 

 Colombia, he felt justified in strongly recommending the Feijoa for southern 

 France and the entire Mediterranean basin, and described the merits of the fruit 



