ON THE CULTURE OF THE MOMBIN, HOBO, &c. AS TABLE FRUIT. 39 
Conservatory at Chatsworth, and every succeeding year, if attention be paid to their 
culture, in various parts of the country, new facts will be elicited, and fresh interest 
awakened, until at no distant period it will become as common to see a Lee Chee, a 
Mango, or a Mammee tree loaded with fruit, as it is now to see one loaded with Oranges. 
In commencing to treat on these plants, and bringing them one by one under 
notice, perhaps the various species of Hog Plums, (Spondias and Poupartia) might 
very properly form the first article, especially as the Mombin, or yellow-fruited 
species, (Spondias luted), produced its pleasant eating plums in the Conservatory at 
Chatsworth during the last autumn ; and if we might venture an opinion from their 
flavour, we should say, that under judicious culture, they may some day become 
classed with the first-rate fruits of our tables. 
By way of commencement it might be as well to say, that the two genera 
bearing what are popularly called Hog Plums, are placed by Dr. Lindley, in his 
" Vegetable Kingdom," under the Natural Order Anacardiacece, or Terebinths, 
along with the Mango, (Mangifera indicd), and other resiniferous plants ; although 
they previously stood alone, and formed an order called Spondiacece. The Doctor, 
however, considers their characters not sufficiently distinct to justify their being 
placed apart from Terebinths, and gives the following as his reasons, which certainly 
carry with them considerable weight. " There is in tropical countries a genus called 
Spondias, whose fruit is eaten under the name of Hog Plums, which genus it has 
been proposed to erect into an Order, called Spondiacece. It differs from Ana-cards, 
in having a many-celled instead of a one-celled one-seeded drupe ; and on this more 
than anything else the character of the supposed Order was made to depend. But 
it appears that in the beginning Spondias have five distinct carpels, inclosed within 
a large fleshy cup, and that the growing together of these carpels is an after ope- 
ration, unconnected with original structure ; a Mango, in fact, if it had five carpels 
instead of one, would be almost a Spondias. For this reason the supposed Order 
does not seem to be tenable. It is true that its ovules are described as being 
suspended from the apex of the cells ; but this seems to arise from the cord con- 
tracting an adhesion with the side of the cells." 
All the species form trees of considerable size, having unequally pinnated, 
alternate, dotless leaves, with occasionally a few simple ones intermixed. The 
flowers are produced in both racemes and panicles, and are both axillary and 
terminal. They are for the most part small, and not very conspicuous. The fruit 
of some of the species is nearly round, (amongst which is included the luted), and 
that of others, exactly in the form of a golden-drop plum, and much about the same 
size. The plants possess no resinous juice, like the Mango and other allies of the 
same order. In the centre of each fruit is a fibrous five-celled nut, which, when 
full grown, occupies nearly one-half of the drupe. The flesh surrounding the nut is 
much eaten both in the Brazils and West Indies, and one species in the Society 
Islands, not yet introduced to this country, has so rich a flavour that it is likened 
to that of the Pine Apple. 
