140 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



(6.) Of the two American fruits least known in 

 Europe, and therefore the most interesting in the 

 present connection, is the Papaw, or Carica papaya, 

 the chief member of its family, Papayacea;. The 

 Malakaw, as the Siamese call it, is grown in 

 almost every garden round Bangkok, and the very 

 tropical appearance of the whole tree is sure to 

 arrest the attention of the new-comer. Its straight 

 palm-like stem is rarely more than twenty feet 

 high ; there are no branches, only the scars of fallen 

 leaves. The long-stalked, much-dissected leaves re- 

 maining stand out singly from the upper part of 

 the stem ; under their shadow are clusters of waxy 

 white flowers, or of large pear-like fruits clinging 

 close round the stem. As the fruit hangs on the 

 tree, the exterior markings of the cell-divisions can 

 be easily seen, but nothing prepares one for the 

 wonder of the opened fruit. When fully ripe 

 the green coat turns yellow and the fruit is 

 as large as an unhusked cocoa-nut. Cut mid- 

 way across with a sharp knife, a very remarkable and 

 beautiful arrangement presents itself. Inside the soft 

 rind is a circle, over an inch wide, of deep golden 

 pulp, much the same in colour and consistence as 

 that of a good mango, and in the centre is a pen- 

 tagonal hollow big enough to hold an ordinary 

 orange, and with its five sides completely covered 

 with grey moist seeds, attached by a cord to the 

 nourishing matrix of yellow pulp. One glance at 

 such a fruit as this would at once dispel from the 

 minds of young botanists all haziness as to the mean- 

 ing of the "parietal placenta: " and "absorbed dis- 

 sepiments " of their text-books. Here the five cell- 

 walls have completely disappeared, and only the 

 markings on the inside and outside of the rind are 

 left to tell the tale. Sometimes only three or four 

 cells are indicated, but five is the normal number, as 

 the flowers are pentamerous. When the seed is 

 examined, it is found that the grey colour is the 

 result of a perfectly black seed being covered with 

 a semi-transparent membranous coat. The unripe 

 malakaw makes a good vegetable ; the ripe fruit is 

 not unlike mango, with the same sickly sweetness. 

 The natives here say that tough meat becomes tender 

 if wrapt in the malakaw leaf. There is no question 

 about the saponaceous quality of the leaves, and a 

 cosmetic is made from the juice. 



(7.) The pineapple is so well known in England, 

 both as an import from the West Indies and as a 

 home growth, that it is unnecessary to describe its 

 peculiar; botanical arrangement, about which all the 

 text-books say quite enough. 



The pineapple, like many another plant of American 

 origin, has probably been introduced into Malaysia 

 by way of the Philippines, in the days when the 

 Portuguese were the masters of the traffic between 

 America and Malaysia and owners of many forts on 

 island and mainland. The pineapple thrives so well 

 in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula that a 



very important branch of trade has sprung up in 

 Singapore in the preserving and canning of this 

 delicious fruit. Europeans in the East, ever in dread 

 of gastric disorders, are somewhat afraid of the pine- 

 apple, the hard white fibrous portions, and even the 

 fibres of the juicy pulp, being a fertile source of 

 trouble. 



Not one of these seven fruits is at all good eating 

 in its wild state. All have doubtless been under 

 some sort of cultivation here or in their native soil for 

 many centuries, and their present lusciousness is the 

 result largely of this cultivation. In the matter of 

 wild fruits, as of wild flowers, the tropics are far 

 behind our own gloomy-skyed island in the West. 

 There is nothing here to compare with the wild 

 raspberries, strawberries, nuts, hips and haws of 

 English woods ; as there is nothing to compare with 

 the daisies and buttercups, primroses and anemones, 

 daffodils and briar-roses. Magnificent flowers are 

 sometimes met with, wonderful fruits are doubtless 

 frequent ; but for the widespread glory of English 

 wild flowers and the abundant variety of English 

 wild fruits the monotonous green of the tropics is 

 after all a poor return. But let the master, Wallace, 

 speak on this point also. 



To help to make the durian and mangosteen 

 known at least by name and brief description to the 

 fruit-loving people of England, and to further widen 

 the opportunities for bringing all good things within 

 the reach of the appreciative, may be one small link 

 in the lengthening, strengthening chain binding East 

 and West together. 



K. Grindrod. 



Bangkok, Siam. 



NATURAL AGE OF GRASSES. 



T T is very interesting to learn how long these 

 JL plants, the most valuable order of the vegetable 

 kingdom, naturally live. From a careful study, ex- 

 tending over several years now, I conclude that few 

 plants which are growing under suitable conditions go 

 beyond five or six years. In order to make myself 

 clear upon suitable conditions, I refer to perennial 

 grasses which have fibrous roots and which are 

 growing in a moderately suitable climate. I believe 

 that a large number of the species which have either 

 bulbs or creepers are merely perpetuated forms of 

 species which under suitable conditions have only 

 fibrous roots, or even might, in some cases, if 

 brought to suitable conditions, turn out to be fibrous- 

 rooted, or the seed produce fibrous-rooted plants. 

 The varying forms of the roots of Timothy grass 

 {Phleiim pratense) form a good example of this — as 

 they form bulbs readily upon dry soil. 



Assuming that bulbs and creepers are appendages 

 which enable grasses to develope under conditions 

 where they could not do so with fibrous roots or in 



