82 Sketch of the Tropical Fruits likely to he worth 



As a distribution of fruits according to the countries in 

 which they are produced, seems the most convenient method 

 for collectors, I have adopted that plan in preference to any 

 other, which might have had a more scientific appearance, 

 but which would, from that circumstance alone, have been 

 less generally intelligible. Indeed every kind of botanical 

 disquisition has been scrupulously avoided ; as being equally 

 foreign to my present purpose, and the general objects of the 

 Society. 



As a conclusion to these preliminary remarks, I may be 

 allowed to meet an objection which may possibly be taken to 

 the enthusiastic manner in which Europeans, who visit tropi- 

 pical countries, are apt to describe their productions, by a 

 remark of Baron Humboldt's, which, I apprehend, no one 

 will be disposed to contradict. — " There are certain spots," 

 he observes, " in America, as in Europe, where different fruits 

 attain their highest degree of perfection. The Sapota Plum 

 (Achras Sapota) should be eaten at the island of Margaretta, 

 or at Cumana ; the Chilimoyas, (very different from the 

 Custard Apple, and the Sweet Sop of the West India Islands) 

 at Loxa, in Peru ; the Grenadillas, or Parchas, at Carraccas ; 

 and the Pine Apple at Esmeralda, or in Cuba ; to find no 

 exaggeration in the praises which the first travellers be- 

 stowed on the excellence of the productions of the Torrid 

 Zone."* 



Before I proceed to enumerate the fruits which are 

 peculiar to particular countries, either within or in the 

 vicinity of the Tropics, it may be proper to speak of the 

 few kinds, which appear now to have become common to 

 * Humboldt's Personal Narrative, Vol. v. page 504. English edition. 



