GRAPES. 



233 



grape can hardly be expected to thrive where 

 the hot season, as in parts of the New World, is 

 also the rainy season. Like the produce of the 

 Gold Coast, the stones are large and bitter, and 

 the skin is tart, thick, and leathery. Bacchus, 

 though he conquered India and founded Nysa, 

 seems to disdain the equinoctial regions. Ac- 

 cording to the French another variety should be 

 introduced, and perhaps the ground-grape of the 

 Cape might succeed better. There are many 

 varieties of the vine in the Central Continent, 

 but the people have hardly learned to eat the 

 fruit : at Zanzibar certain Arabs tried it with 

 sugar and rose-water, and suffered in consequence 

 from violent colics. We read in ' El Bakui ' 

 (a.d. 1403) that some vines bear three crops 

 per annum. 



The water-melon, most wholesome of fruits 

 in warm climates, is found in Zanzibar and in 

 the Lake Regions of the interior : the best are 

 said to grow about Lamu and Brava. It is a 

 poor flavourless article, white-yellow (not white 

 and pink) inside, dry, and wanting the refreshing 

 juice; it is fit only for boiling, and its edible 

 seed is the best part. The growth of the papaw 

 is truly tropical ; a single year suffices to hang 

 the tree with golden fruit, which is eaten raw 



