'SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 229 



travel; and those that are cut when less than ripe 

 never attain perfection. 



The native Floridian sits down to rest, and cuts 

 the rough outside off of a big "sugar loaf," as a 

 Yankee would peel an apple. Then he slices it 

 across the bottom, and eats the slices, holding the 

 uncut fruit by the leafy top. Does he eat a whole 

 one? Bless you, he has only started in! One, 

 two, or three are not too many to quench the thirst 

 of a man. The Northerner gasps to see fruit that 

 at home would cost over a dollar disappearing 

 down the throat of a loafer who has jogged out 

 from town to see how the harvest is coming on., 

 Nobody chides him for coming. 



Quantities of pines go north from the West 

 Indies, whose climate produces fine fruit. Brazil, 

 the native place of the wild pineapple, raises a con- 

 siderable supply for export. The cultivation of 

 the fruit has spread to the Tropics of Africa and 

 Asia. For a long time English gardeners have 

 raised the finest kinds of this fruit in special hot- 

 houses built for the purpose. 



The leaves of pineapple plants contain valuable 

 fibre. We see it in the wonderful pina-cloth, im- 

 ported from the Philippines. The natives of the 

 Islands of the Malay Archipelago also strip and 

 wash out the fibre, using primitive comb-like tools 



