( 



134 



proceeds that great variety of apples, the fruit of 

 many of which is excellent. Among these, howe- 

 ver, those of Quiliota are the most in estimation. 

 The quinces are remarkable for their size and good- 

 ness like those of Europe they have an acid and 

 astringent taste, but if suffered to attain perfect ma- 

 turity, and not gathered until the end of autumn, they 

 are very sweet, and are called in the country corcia. 

 It is a well known fact that this fruit loses its astrin- 

 gency by being allowed to remain a long time upon 

 the tree, but in this country they pretend that the 

 autumnal rains and the slight white frosts of that 

 season are necessary to perfect it. There is likewise 

 a particular species of the quince, improperly called 

 lúcuma. The fruit is very different from that of the real 

 lúcuma, and is always sweet, of a conical shape, and 

 in a small degree umbilical ; the skin, as well as the 

 pulp, is of an orange colour, and the tree is a real 

 quince tree. 



The peaches amount to fourteen species, and fre- 

 quently produce fruit of more than sixteen ounces 



only attention paid to their cultivation was by introducing sonic 

 small streams of water among them, from the river Chile, to sup- 

 ply the want of rain during the summer. — Frazier^s Foyag-e, vol. i. 



Pears and apples grow so naturally in the bushes, that it is 

 difficult to conceive, on seeing such quantities of them, how it is 

 possible for these trees to have multiplied since tlie conquest to 

 such a degree, if it is true, as is said, that they were not in the 

 country before that period. — Frazier*s Voyage^ vol. i. 



* What I most admired was the size of the quinces, for they 

 are larger than a man's head. But what was no less an object of 

 surprise, Avas the little account made of them by the inhabitants, 

 who suffered them to rot upon the ground without paying any at 

 tention to collecting them. — Feuill/^ vol. iii. 



