84 Sketch of the Tropical Fruits likely to be worth 



exquisite flavour,* some of them surpassing the finest 

 Pear.-f* In the better sorts the flesh is no harder than butter 

 is in winter, and has much the colour of the finest yellow 

 butter. It is of a delicate taste, and melts in the mouth like 

 Marmalade.! To point out all the kinds that are cultivated 

 in the East Indies alone would be as difficult as to describe 

 the varieties of Apples and Pears in Europe ; for the names 

 vary according to the form, size, taste, and colour of the 

 fruits.H Sixteen principal kinds are described at length by 

 Rumphius, from which all the others seem to have diverged. 

 Of these the worst are Pisang Swangi, P. Tando, and P. 

 Gabba Gabba ; and the best are the round, soft, yellowish 

 sorts, called P. Medji and P. Radja. Some cultivators at 

 Batavia boast of having eighty sorts.§ Rheede distinguishes 

 fourteen varieties by name, as natives of Malabar. 4. In Suma- 

 tra alone twenty varieties are cultivated ; among which the 

 Pisang Amas, or small yellow Plantain, is esteemed the most 

 delicate, and next to that the P. Raja, P. Dingen, and P. 

 KalU** In the West Indies, Plantains appear to be even 

 more extensively employed than in the Eastern world. The 

 modes of eating them are various. The best sorts are 

 served up raw at table as in the East Indies, and have 

 been compared for flavour to an excellent Reinette Apple 

 after its sweetness has been condensed by keeping through 

 the winter. Sometimes they are baked in their skins, 

 and then they taste like the best stewed Pears of Europe. 



* Crawford, Vol. i. page 412. f Carey's Hortus Bengalensis, page 18. 

 + Dampier's Voyages, Vol. i. page 313. [| Rumphius, Vol. v. page 126. 

 § Ibid Vol. v. page 130-1-2. \. Hortus Malabaricus, Vol. i. page 20. 



% Marsden's History of Sumatra, 2nd edition, page 100 . 



