90 WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS, 
able multiplicity and abundance, mnst also produce a 
variety of fruits. But man lias as yet done but little to 
improve by care and art these gifts of Nature, and, with 
rare exceptions, the delicious llavour for which our nutive 
fruits are indebted to centuries of cultivation is found 
wanting in those of the torrid zone. In our goj'dens 
Pomona appears in the refined garb of civilisa.tion, while 
in the tropics she still sliovvs herself as a savage beauty, 
requiring the aid of culture for the full development of 
ker attractions. 
Yet there are exceptions to the rule, and among others 
the Peruvian Chirimoya is vaunted by travellers in such 
terms of admiration that it can hardly be inferior to, and 
probably surpasses, the most exquisite fruits of European 
growth. Hanke calls it, in one of his letters, a master- 
piece of Nature, and Tschudi says that its taste is quite 
incompamble. It grows to perfection at Huanuco, where 
it attains a weight of from fourteen to sixteen pounds. 
The fruit is generally heart-shaped, with the broad base 
attached to the branch. The rind is green, covered with 
small tubercles and scales, and encloses a snow-white, 
juicy pulpj with many black kernels. Both the fruit and 
the blossoms exhale a delightful odoun The tree is alx)ut 
twenty feet high, and has a broad dull green crown. 
In the eastern hemisphere, the litchi, the mangosteen, 
and the mango enjoy the highest reputation. 
The Litchi, a small insignificant tree, with lanceolate 
leaves, and small greenish-white flowers, is a native of 
China and Cochin- Chin a, but its cultivation has spread 
over the East and the West Indies. The plum-like scarlet 
fruit is generally eaten by the Chinese to their tea, but it 
is also dried in ovens and exported. In order to obtain the 
fruit in perfection, for the use of the Imperial Court^ the 
trees, as soon as they blossom, are conveyed from Canton 
to Pekin on rafts, at a very great trouble and expense, so 
that the plums may just be ripo on their arrival in the 
northern capital. 
