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others bitter ones, others again forbidden fruit, and, 

 in short, all the varieties of the orange ; but until 

 the trees actually are in bearing, no one can guess 

 what the fruit is likely to prove; and even then, 

 the seeds which produce shaddocks, although 

 taken from a tree remarkable for the excellence of 

 its fruit, will frequently yield only such as are 

 scarcely eatable. So also the varieties of the mango 

 are infinite : the fruit of no two trees resembling 

 each other ; and the seeds of the very finest mango 

 (although sown and cultivated with the utmost 

 care) seldom affording any thing at all like the 

 parent stock. The two first mangoes which I tasted 

 were nothing but turpentine and sugar ; the third 

 was very delicious ; and yet I was told that it was 

 by no means of a superior quality. The sweet 

 cassava requires no preparation ; the bitter cassava, 

 unless the juice is carefully pressed out of it, is a 

 deadly poison; there is a third kind, called the sweet- 

 and-bitter cassava, which is perfectly wholesome 

 till a certain age, when it acquires its deleterious 

 qualities. Many persons have been poisoned by 

 mistaking these various kinds of cassava for each 

 other. As soon as the plantain has done bearing, 

 it is cut down ; when four or five suckers spring 

 from each root, which become plants themselves in 

 their turn. Ratoons are suckers of the sugar-cane : 

 they are far preferable to the original plants, where 

 the soil is rich enough to support them ; but they 

 are much better adapted to some estates than to 



