204 
The Garden Magazine, December, 1920 
county where it is now raised merely as a curiosity and not 
marketed at all. Our agricultural expert in the Los Angeles 
Chamber of Commerce cites this as an example of our thrift- 
lessness in the matter of national resources. 
The Japanese Persimmon and the Tamopan Persimmon from 
China are not at all the same; they are near relatives of the 
common wild American Persimmon. The Tamopan variety 
may be grown in almost any clime as it is hardy over a large area 
in China, but there are few specimens in cultivation. The first 
specimens were brought by a missionary on furlough, and 
planted a few miles from my home where they grew neglected 
and unappreciated until recently. Many orchards in the foot- 
hills are now including these interesting trees. Orientals dry 
the fruit which has a high food value. 
The date-like Jujube has, beside all the Date’s good qualities, 
the happy faculty of ripening in a climate where human beings 
can live comfortably the year round. Only a few Jujube trees 
are being grown in Orange County, but these are doing wonder- 
fully well with little care and no special protection. 
Nutmegs of the spiciest kind have come to southern Cali- 
fornia directly from Persia, and are doing their best to win the 
approval which they deserve. 
Varnish nuts are exceedingly valuable. The crudeoil that oozes 
from the broken nut is used, unmixed, by Orientals as a finishing 
for their lacquer work and hand-carved furniture. There is a 
long row of these trees, twelveorfour- 
teen years old, across a ten-acre field 
near Santa Ana, regarded by the 
owner merely as fine shade t rees. Cer- 
tainly they are ornamental, but a for- 
tune awaits the man who will com- 
mercialize the rich oil of these nuts. 
The Hawaiian Papaya also has 
large possibilities commercially. 
Like the Lemon it fruits nearly the 
year round. Papayas resemble avo- 
cados in shape and are eaten in 
the same manner, raw, as a salad. 
The Carissa from the Upper Nile 
is considered a “ plum, ” but the fruit 
when cooked tastes almost like cran- 
berry and is entirely too acid for 
eating raw. It may attain tree-size 
in this climate, but usually remains 
a shrub with strikingly beautiful 
flowers. The few here are not being 
utilized at present. 
The Eugenia is even less known. 
In Brazil, however, where it is highly 
valued, both leaves and fruits are 
made use of. 
Like the Loquat the Guava is 
found in almost every California 
orchard. The little yellow fruits, 
“strawberries with a pine perfume” 
(according to a discriminating new 
comer), grow on large shrubs fre- 
quently planted as hedges, and re- 
ceiving hedge-care. Brought first 
from Florida and here crossed with 
the Lemon, the California Guava 
produces fruit with a peculiar straw- 
berry taste which distinguishes it 
sharply from the Florida variety. 
The Guava bears profusely and re- 
quires, a rancher tells me, as little 
attention as Pig-weed. 
The Camphor tree is most popular 
all over southern California. Its 
light green, glossy foliage, shapeli- 
ness, and smoothness of trunk make 
it an admirable ornamental. 
A single specimen of the “Crown- 
of-Thorns-tree, ” brought from Pal- 
estine yearsagoby Madam Modjeska 
and still thriving, seems to upholdthe 
horticulturists’ claim that the vege- 
tation of this state canduplicate that 
of almost the whole world outside of 
the equatorial zone. 
Palms of every description deco- 
rate the entire region, though their fruit attains commercial value 
only in the hot, almost desert-like Coachella Valley. 
The “thirty kinds of climate” along the Pacific Coast, assisted 
by man’s intelligent interest, make California an ideal home for 
adventurous immigrants of the fruit world who travel thus far. 
THE DATE PALM AS A DECORATIVE FEATURE 
At the home of Mr. Wickham Havens, Oakland, California, where the too cool climate 
renders its fruit inedible, but in no way impairs its strikingly picturesque habits of growth 
