37 ^ 
tail tree with eatable but acid fruit. 1 have met with it in Perak 
where the natives were collecting the fruit to eat. 
Mammea americana. — The Mammee apple of the West Indies 
has long been cultivated in the Botanic Gardens Singapore, but 
has never yet shown signs of flowering, 
Ternstr^miace/e. 
The butter-nut, Caryocar nuciferum , native of South America 
has not long been introduced successfully into Singapore. It 
seems to do well, but it will probably prove of very slow growth. 
Malvaceae. 
Hibiscus Sabdarijfu , the Rosella is a tall herbaceous mallow 
with large yellow flowers with a purple centre. It is an annual and 
raised from seed. The fleshy calyx and capsule are acid and of a 
pleasant taste, and are used for preserves. It is not often culti- 
vated here but grows very well, and is worth the attention of gar- 
deners. It is popular in India and the West Indies. 
The Durian, Durio sibethinus , L. is perhaps the most famous 
fruit of the Malay region, and it is unnecesary to describe it. The 
© tree varies a good deal in height, and this seems chiefly to depend 
on the soil in which it is grown. In stiff clay especially on hill 
slopes, it never seems to thrive, but on low flat alluvial soil it often 
attains an enormous height, over loo feet. In bad soils it not only 
is stunted and short-lived, but it often though flowering regularly 
and heavily never sets a single fruit. The tree is always raised 
from seed and takes about ten or twelve years to produce fruit. 
It flowers in April and May or later producing fruit in six 
months. The fruit varies a good deal in size and flavour. A very 
large kind weighing io or 15 pounds is known as Durian Kapala 
Gajah. A small seedless variety chiefly obtained from Buru is 
Durian Tembaga. I have met with a curious variety in which the 
fruit which was very large had a hole in the top and inside was 
another small durian complete with the spiny husk replacing the 
placenta of the fruit. A good Durian should have little of the 
strong odour for which it is famous, and have plenty of pulp on 
the seeds. The characteristic flavour of onions common in inferior 
fruit should be absent, and the pulp of a creamy and not stringy 
consistency. Green Durians with slender close spines on the husk 
are always poor in flavour. The fruit should be of a clean light 
brown with rather distant conic spines, and but little odour. It is 
ripe when the husk begins to split and does not keep at all well, 
requiring to be eaten as soon as it is quite ripe. 
The Durian is supposed to be very strengthening especially for 
children, and also to have strong aphrodisiac qualities. It is indi- 
gestible, however, to some persons. The fruit is usually eaten 
fresh, but sometimes used in making ices. Durian cake, Luinpuh, 
is made when durians are very abundant, by boiling the pulp with 
sugar, and making it into rolls wrapped in Pandan leaves. It is 
more popular with natives than Europeans. 
The seeds are boiled and cut up, then cooked with coco-nut oil 
