August, 190$.] 



13<5 



MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS. 



MANGOES IN CEYLON. 

 {Illustrated.) 



By H. F. Macmillan. 



The Mango {Mangifera indica) is the 

 fruit pat excellence of India. It is in 

 fact "The King of Fruits " in the opinion 

 of Lady Brassey and others. In India, 

 its birth-place, the mango has been culti- 

 vated from time immemorial, and it may 

 now be met with cultivated or in a semi- 

 wild condition in every tropical country. 

 Its cultivation extends also to the sub- 

 tropics as far as Natal, Florida, Queens- 

 land, the Canary Islands, &c. The 

 common distribution of the genus in a 

 wild state may be acounted for largely 

 by the fact that many birds are very 

 partial to the fruit, and carry the seed 

 considerable distances. The varieties of 

 Mango are numerous, and vary in quality 

 of flavour, juiciness aud succulency of 

 the pulp, size and shape of seed, &c. 

 Some have a distinct turpentiuey but 

 pleasant taste, whilst others are said to 

 " combine the flavour of a peach with a 

 dash of pineapple." The quality also 

 largely depends on the absence of fibre, 

 aud the proportionate size of the stone 

 to the amount of pulp surrounding it. 

 The wilder forms are characterised 

 mainly by a comparatively large oblong 

 flatfish stone, a scanty fibrous acid flesh 

 and a tough skin. The size and shape 

 of the fruit are as variable as the flavour. 

 In some varieties the fruit is but an 

 ounce or two in weight, whilst in others 

 it weighs as much as three or four 

 pounds, e.g., the "Rupee Mango" of 

 Ceylon. 



In Ceylon there are at least five dis- 

 tinct types of mango recognised, viz., 

 the "Jaffna mango," with a large oval 

 fruit of excellent quality when well- 

 grown (evidently synonymous with the 

 "Alphonse" of India); the "Rupee 

 mango," a very large and somewhat 

 globular fruit (probably synonymous 

 with the" Inerma mango" of India); 

 and the " Parrot mango," whose medium- 

 sized fruit is distinguished by a pro- 

 minent beak; the "Baittee" or "Bom- 

 bay " mango, fruit round, distinctly com- 

 pressed, usually very juicy, yellowish in 

 colour when ripe ; " Mi-amba" (honey 

 mango), a small roundish fruit of a 

 rather tart pleasant flavour, but not 

 justifying the signification of the name ; 

 "Et-amba" (seed-mango, signifying the 

 small size of the fruit), a small oval fruit 

 with scanty, juicy pulp of a tart flavour. 



The last-named varies in size, but is 

 usually that of a small hen's egg. There 

 are several sub-varieties of this, one of 

 which bears small juicy fruit of the size 

 of a plum. A tree of this in Peradeniya 

 Gardens is called by the coolies " Maha- 

 mudaliyar mango" (a name, one would 

 think, which would be more appropriate 

 for the Rupee mango), it having been 

 presented to the Gardens by the late 

 Maha-mudaliyar, Mr. C. P. Dias Bandara- 

 naike. 



Of all these there are many sub-varie- 

 ties, more especially of the first two 

 named. The best forms of our so-called 

 •■Jaffna mango" (Alphonse) are the 

 choicest that I have met with in Ceylon. 

 1 am informed that at Jaffna the name is 

 reversed, the fruit being known there 

 as the ''Colombo mango." The "Alphonse" 

 is a much-prized fruit in India. Wood- 

 row, who has written much about 

 mangoes, and is an authority on the 

 subject, considers this to be perhaps the 

 best of all mangoes. Mr. Oliver, of the 

 Fruit Department of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, confirms this 

 opinion and considers the " Alphonse " 

 one of " two mangoes which can be eaten 

 in polite society," the other being the 

 " Mulgoba" mango. There is a variety 

 much appreciated in the West Indies by 

 the name of the " Ceylon mango," which, 

 however, is not known in Ceylon. Ceylon 

 is not an ideal country for mangoes, 

 which generally are adapted to a rather 

 dry, hot climate. Thus the northern 

 part of Ceylon, especially the Jaffna 

 district, can produce much better 

 mangoes than the moist south-west por- 

 tion of the low-country. 



High cultivation of mangoes is seldom 

 adopted in Ceylon, and the usual method 

 of propagation is by seed. Of late, how- 

 ever, grafted plants from India have 

 been more generally imported. These 

 are preferable to local plants even when 

 raised by grafts, if one is sure of obtain- 

 ing them from a reliable source. A 

 peculiarity of Ceylon mangoes, at any 

 rate of those grown in the moist south- 

 western districts, is that they always 

 retain their green colour even when ripe ; 

 in fact a fruit that shows a yellow tint 

 may, as a rule, be discarded as bad. 



Mango-growing for market is a very 

 profitable undertaking in some parts of 

 India, where they are sometimes syste- 

 matically cultivated as an industry. A 

 planter from Lower Burma, who has a 

 considerable area under mango trees, 



