37« 



plenty of flesh on the single stone. The flavour of the fruit is 

 somewhat like that of a cherry with a trace of raspberry. It grows 

 readily from seed, but here at least is not a heavy cropper. It 

 fruits, however, nearly all the year round. 



RUTACE^E. 



This order contains the oranges, limes and pumelos, belonging 

 to the genus Citrus, the lime berry, Triphasia, L. 



Citrus decumana, L. The Pumelo, Shaddock, Forbidden Fruit. — 

 A big tree usually larger than most other species, easily known 

 by its large fruits, and the usually broad triangular wing on the 

 leafstalk, and large flowers. There are several varieties of this 

 fruit. The commonest form is white fleshed, and this is, as a rule, 

 the best flavoured. A pink fleshed one is also commonly cultivated 

 which is often equally sweet and well flavoured. The Bali Pumelo 

 is a smaller plant, fruiting when comparatively small tree. The 

 fruit is globular and white fleshed. It is a very floriferous variety 

 and is worth cultivating for its sweet scented flowers alone. The 

 fruit however is excellent. 



The Pumelo grows well all over the Peninsula, especially in 

 good low lying soil, but its fruits are very liable to attacks of the 

 pumelo moth. The rind of the pumelo is highly valued by natives 

 for making candied peel, being dried cut up small and boiled in 

 sugar. 



Citrus limonum var acida. The Sour Lime. — Is cultivated in 

 most parts of the Peninsula, but by no means as much as it should 

 be considering the importance of the fruit to health in the tropics. 

 It will grow almost anywhere and fruits very heavily. The fruit is 

 globular or oblong about 2 inches through, smooth green or yellow 

 when kept. It is used for making drinks, ices. etc. and practically 

 plays here the part of the Lemon in Europe. It can be grown from 

 cuttings or seed. 



The common and best variety is the Limau Nipis of the Malays. 



Other varieties are Limau Kasturi, a small plant, the leaves 

 smaller and a little narrower, the fruit quite globular about an inch 

 through, smooth and shining, turning yeliow as it ripens. It is 

 very acid and is used chiefly for pickling. 



Limau Susu is a low straggling bush with large white flowers, 

 about as big as those of a pumelo, a thorny stem and elliptic blunt 

 leaves, three inches long with a short not winged petiole. The 

 fruit is as large as a lemon, oblong or globular oblong beaked, the 

 rind tolerably thick. It is chiefly used for washing clothes but can 

 also be pickled. 



There are also forms of this with very large long fruits as big 

 as a pumelo as well as quite round ones. It is possible that this 

 is a cultivated form of the pumelo, but its habit is totally different. 



The Lemon has been successfully grown in the Gardens of 

 Malacca, Penang and Singapore up to an altitude of 1,500 feet. 

 The trees all fruited, and produced excellent lemons, but they were 

 attacked by the pumelo moth in many cases and spoiled. The tree 

 is not however so hardy as the lime, and seems to be more particu- 



