AVG. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
81 
IMPE3RIAL GARDENS FOR PRUIT- 
TRBE DISSEMINATION THROUGH- 
OUT THE EMPIRE. 
By nr. BoNAYiA, F. E. H. S. 
iBeprinted from the Journal or the Botal Horti- 
cultural Society. Vol, XXV. Part 3.1 
It is gratifying to learn that the two noble Bananas 
of India — or Plantains, as the English there call them — 
have been at last introduced into the Royal Gardens 
at Kew. 
The liam Kela and the Champa Bananas must have 
been known to the British in India for perhaps a 
hundred years, and yet nobody, until recently, has 
ever thought of introducing these fine things either 
into England or to any of our colonies. 
I do not think there are many plants the stools of 
which — like bulbs — can be taken long distances without 
any special care. The Banana is such a plant. 
The way it is grown in Northern India is this : — 
A trench is dug, three feet deep and as many broad. 
The bottom of the trench is manured, and the bulbous 
roots, with their sprouts, planted there, four or five 
feet from each other. Then every year a lot of fresh 
cow-dung is thrown round the stems, until the trench is 
filled up in the course of years, when the site is 
changed and the same process lepeated. The Banana 
requires plenty of water, except in rainy seasons. 
In Northern India the choicest varieties cannot be 
cultivated, as both the hot winds and the cold winter 
nichta are unfavourable to them. Bombay, Madras, 
and Bengal are the districts that suit them. 
The comparatively inferior variety now so largely 
grown in the West Indies cannot be compared with the 
choicer ones of India. 
It is surprising that wealthy persons in the United 
Kingdom have never devoted a special glass-house to 
the cultivation of these indubitably fine varieties of 
Plantain. 
The introduction of these choice Bananas into Eng- 
land is a movement in the right direction. Eventually 
they can be disseminated throughout the tropical de- 
pendencies of Great Britain. 
But this is not enough. 
There is room for two or three Imperial Gardens, 
■where some of the choicest fruit-trees of the world 
could be collected, studied, and not only disseminated 
throughout the Empire, but new ones evolved by seed 
variation and cross-fertilisation ; for it is idle to 
suppose that all these choice fruits were originally 
contained in the " Garden of Eden. " 
Let us take them : — 
(a) One ob Two Gardens for the Citrus Genus. 
There are so many fine and distinct varieties of this 
wonderful genus — some of which are very little known 
out of the localities in which they are grown — that it 
would be an advantage to the people of the Empire, 
and also to mankind in general, to have them collected 
for the study of their botanical and horticultural 
characteristics and commercial values. 
The Portugal Orange Group, 
' The Portugal Orange, of which the British markets 
are now full, with its variations, the seedless oval 
Orange of Malta, and the oval Orange of Jaffa, also 
seedless, and the Blood' Orange, &c., are sufficiently 
well-known to need no description. 
1 am informed that in Malta there exists a unique 
Orange of the same group, but which is never sour 
from beginning to end, but sweet and juicy. It is 
called there "Loommi-Laienj. " I have never met 
with an Orange of this description in India. It would 
be worth while getting 'hold of it for the purpose of 
multiplying it and bringing it into commerce. Such 
a unique Orange, I believe, has never appeared in the 
English market. 
In India I met with two varieties of this group ; both 
are fine and worthy of being more generally known. 
The one is the "Bandir" of Tanjore, a large Orange, 
12 in. in girth or so, with a yellowish-orange skin 
when ripe. The other is the " Mussembi " of Pooua. 
Its name is evidently a corruption of Mozambique, 
and it goes to the Bombay market. The exterior is 
orange-yellow, and is covered with longitudinal furrows 
from base to tip. Natives say this can be kept on the 
tree for a whole year without deteriorating. 
The Suntara Group of India. 
The loose-skinned "Suntara" Orange of India, ai 
far as I know, has only appeared once in the London 
shops. There is a considerable trade in this Orange in 
India itself. 
Thete are two widely spread varieties of it. The one 
is called " Nagpore " Orange, some of which find their 
way to Bombay- It is this, I believe, which, on one 
occasion, was sent to London. 
The other is ttie " Sylhet " Orange, which mainly 
goes to Calcutta, and is grown solely from seed. 
The fruit of the two differs little, but the tree of the 
former has a spreading form ; while that of the latter 
is upright, somewhat in the fashion of a Lombardy 
Poplar, although, of course, not so tall by any means. 
There are other good varieties of this group which 
are little known. One is grown in Lahore, the fruit 
of which is distinctly pyriform (see Oranr/es »nd 
Lrmons of India and Ceylon, Plate cii.) It is wrongly 
called ' Kilrna ' in Lahore. Another is the ' Jawa- 
narun ' of Ceylon, resembling a purse with a much, 
puckered surface. 
A still more interesting varietj' is the green Orange 
of Ceylon, called there ' Konda-niirun. ' It is invari- 
ably eaten in its green state. Rumphius mentions an 
Orange which is green v;hen quite mature, and if left 
on the tree till it colours becomes, he says, worthless. 
But in an experiment which I made with these green 
Oranges in 1884, I ' found them better flavoured and 
more juicy as they turned yellow. 
Both the ' Jawa-narun ' and the green 'Kondanarun' 
are pictured in Miss North's Gallery at Kew, No. 266, 
In Ceylon, a number of the varieties of the ' Silntira ' 
group are called Mandarins, but the only true 
Mandarins I ever saw there were a few on a neglected 
tree which the late Dr. Trimen showed me in 
Peradeniya. 
The Tangerines of the London shops are no other 
than Mandarins. * I never could discover one in 
London worth eating. To enjoy it you must grow it your, 
self, and take it off the tree when fully ripe. The per. 
fnme of its peel is not to be found in any other Orange 
To the ' Suntara ' group belongs a small Orange- 
grown almost wild on the borders of Nepaul, north of 
Goruckpore It is the sweetest Orange I ever came 
across, perhaps a little too sweet. It is locally 
known by the name of Simtolah. 
Another important Indian Orange belonp-s to what 
I consider a subgroup of the ' Suntara. ' It goes by 
the name A'ionla or Kmnala. Its esterior is of a deep 
lobster-red, and even when quite coloured is sourish, 
but if left for a long time on the tree it sweetens. It 
is the latest of all Indian Oranges. 
The Laroo of Poena is, I consider, a variety of the 
foregoing. It is flat and very loose skinned, so much eo 
that the pulp-ball can be made to rattle within the skin. 
I have enumerated all the Indian Oranges that could, 
I think, be made marketable, although there ara 
several others. 
It is not easy to find a place for an Imperial Orange 
Garden, where all the Orange varieties of the Citrus 
genus could be studied, for one kind of soil might not 
suit them all. The Mediterranean climate would prob- 
ably suit all varieties, and Cyprus or Egypt might 
perhaps be mentioned as an eligible locality. It must 
be a place where water could be easily procured, and 
not subject to frost. 
(b) A Mango GiRDSN. 
An Imperial Garden for Mango trees of the choicest 
varieties, for the study, propagation, and dissemina- 
* Perhaps they may be a seed variety, apd a little 
smaller than the true Mandarin, 
