376 



tall tree with eatable but acid fruit. I have met with it in Perak 

 where the natives were collecting the fruit to eat. 



Mammea americana. — The Mammee apple of the West Indies 

 has long been cultivated in the Botanic Gardens Singapore, but 

 has never yet shown signs of flowering. 



Ternstr^miace^. 



The butter-nut, Caryocar nuciferum, native of South America 

 has not long been introduced successfully into Singapore. It 

 seems to do well, but it will probably prove of very slow growth. 



Malvaceae. 



Hibiscus Sabdariffa , the Rosella is a tall herbaceous mallow 

 with large yellow flowers with a purple centre. It is an annual and 

 raised from seed. The fleshy calyx and capsule are acid and of a 

 pleasant taste, and are used for preserves. It is not often culti- 

 vated here but grows very well, and is worth the attention of gar- 

 deners. It is popular in India and the West Indies. 



The Durian, Durio sibethinus, L. is perhaps the most famous 

 fruit of the Malay region, and it is unnecesary to describe it. The 

 tree varies a good deal in height, and this seems chiefly to depend 

 on the soil in which it is grown. In stiff clay especially on hill 

 slopes, it never seems to thrive, but on low flat alluvial soil it often 

 attains an enormous height, over loo feet. In bad soils it not only 

 is stunted and short-lived, but it often though flowering regularlv 

 and heavily never sets a single fruit. The tree is always raised 

 from seed and takes about ten or twelve years to produce fruit. 



It flowers in April and May or later producing fruit in six 

 months. The fruit varies a good deal in size and flavour. A very 

 large kind weighing 10 or 15 pounds is known as Durian Kapala 

 Gajah. A small seedless variety chiefly obtained from Buru is 

 Durian Tembaga. I have met with a curious variety in which the 

 fruit which was very large had a hole in the top and inside was 

 another small durian complete with the spiny husk replacing the 

 placenta of the fruit. A good Durian should have little of the 

 strong odour for which it is famous, and have plenty of pulp on 

 the seeds. The characteristic flavour of onions common in inferior 

 fruit should be absent, and the pulp of a creamy and not stringy 

 consistency. Green Durians with slender close spines on the husk 

 are always poor in flavour. The fruit should be of a clean light 

 brown with rather distant conic spines, and but little odour. It is 

 ripe when the husk begins to split and does not keep at all well, 

 requiring to be eaten as soon as it is quite ripe. 



The Durian is supposed to be very strengthening especially for 

 children, and also to have strong aphrodisiac qualities. It is indi- 

 gestible, however, to some persons. The fruit is usually eaten 

 fresh, but sometimes used in making ices. Durian cake, Lumpuh, 

 is made when durians are very abundant, by boiling the pulp with 

 sugar, and making it into rolls wrapped in Pandan leaves. It is 

 more popular with natives than Europeans. 



The seeds are boiled and cut up, then cooked with coco-nut oil 



