THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
their appearance in markets nearer the poles except 
occasionalh' as curiosities. 
It is possible, however, for the tersn tropical fruit, to l)e 
a misnomer, for there are many regions within the tropics 
where pears, peaches, plums, cherries, grapes, strawberries 
and other small fruits familiar in temperate gardens grow 
and fruit abundantly. We must remember that while tem- 
perature constanth' decreases from the equator to the pole?, 
it no less steadily decreases from sea level to the to is cf 
the mountains even at the equator. Thus it happens that 
one may find in tropical markets, fruits regarded as typ- 
ical of temperate regions neighboring those that can only 
be produced in warm countries. In cold regions, by means 
of hot houses, man may coax the warm country plants to 
fruit, but in the tropics, nature often plays into the hands 
of the cultivator b\^ producing a cool and elevated region 
close to one that is strictly tropical in the ordinary sense 
of that term. 
Not all of us can visit the tropics, but there is a certain 
fascination in reading aljout the strange fruits there pro- 
duced. The very names of many of them are strangers to 
our ears, and while the names of others may have been 
made more familiar by works of travel, the fruits them- 
selves would be no more easily recognized. A list of the 
fruits that are commonly cultivated in Ceylon wasrecently 
given in Indian Planting, and from this we extract, with 
some additional remarks, some of the most interesting ex- 
amples. 
After the fruits commonly exported from the tropics 
to temperate regions, must be mentioned the mango 
{Mangifer Indica) which in its season forms a large part 
of the native diet. It is borne on trees of medium height 
which resemble the magnolia in habit. The fruits are borne 
in clusters on long stalks and are about the size of a large 
peach. Most mangos have a terpentine like flavor that 
at first is a bar to the enjo\-ment of the fruits. There is a 
single large stone in the center covered with long fibres, 
much like a cot ten seed is. The raangosteen {Garcinia man- 
