8 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. V, January, 1951 
leigh. Could Sir Walter Raleigh and his men 
have been the first white men to find and eat 
the Cayenne pineapple? 
If the Cayenne pineapple originated in the 
Maipure Indian country, the parent variety or 
species may still be present as a part of the 
native vegetation. Other members of the hy- 
brid population of which our Cayenne variety 
was a member may still be among those used 
by the Indians. Could some of the sibs of the 
Cayenne variety be better fitted for large-scale 
commercial production? Could some of the 
sibs have inherited resistance to diseases 
which Cayenne failed to obtain? Could some 
of the sisters of Cayenne have inherited two 
or more genes for yellow flesh color, where 
Cayenne obtained only one? 
These are some of the questions which have 
been raised by this study of the origin of the 
Cayenne variety of pineapple, to which an- 
swers should sometime be obtained. 
VARIATIONS WITHIN THE CAYENNE VARIETY 
Two types of hereditary variations, which 
may be designated as strain differences and 
mutations, exist within the variety. 
Strain differences 
The term ' 'strain” is used here to indicate 
hereditary differences in fruits or plants with- 
in a variety when the manner of origin of 
these differences is not known. A long time 
ago growers of this variety recognized strain 
differences. The Journal of the Jamaica Agri- 
cultural Society (about 1900) carried a state- 
ment that there was a good and a poor kind 
of Smooth Cayenne and that the latter was 
also known as the Honolulu kind! 
Captain John Kidwell, an early pioneer of 
the pineapple industry in Hawaii, stated 
(Kidwell, 1904) that there were two distinct 
types in Hawaii, and that he considered one 
much superior to the other. The poor type of 
Cayenne, according to his statement, had 
been imported from Queensland, Australia, 
under the name of Smooth Cayenne. He de- 
scribed it as having a very large plant produc- 
ing fruits weighing from 7 to 15 pounds and 
numerous slips on the peduncle beneath the 
fruit. The fruits, while of good quality, were 
conical in shape and possessed a very large 
core. The other type, which he called the 
"true” Cayenne, was similar in appearance, 
but the plants were smaller and produced 
fruits from 5 to 7 pounds in weight. This type 
did not produce slips on the peduncle be- 
neath the fruit. As a consequence of this latter 
characteristic, this good strain was necessarily 
propagated from suckers and the crowns. 
In 1887 a report of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture on tropical and sub- 
tropical fruits mentions three kinds of 
Cayenne being grown in the Key West region 
of Florida. These were listed as Smooth 
Cayenne, Spine-leaved Cayenne, and Thomp- 
son’s Smooth Cayenne. No description of the 
third kind was given, but its listing as a 
separate strain indicates that it may have been 
different in some respect from the others. 
In Hawaii we recognize three strains of 
Cayenne, all of which produce good canning 
fruits but differ in some plant and fruit char- 
acters. The one used most extensively 
throughout the Islands is known simply as 
Cayenne. The second strain, grown mostly on 
Kauai, is known as the "Hilo” variety, or as 
the Hilo Cayenne. The Hilo variety differs 
from Cayenne in at least three characters. The 
most prominent difference is in the absence of 
slips in the Hilo variety.. It also produces a 
smaller plant and fruit, with the fruit more 
cylindrical and of better average quality. It 
produces more suckers than Cayenne and the 
plants have a darker green leaf color. These 
differences are about the same as those Cap- 
tain Kidwell used to distinguish between 
Cayenne and what he called the Queensland 
type. The strain we now call Hilo appears to 
Fig. 2. Location of the probable area of origin of the Cayenne pineapple, showing the location of the town of 
Maipures on the Orinoco River. The Venturari River (Ven. R.) area, for a long time the country of the Maipure 
Indians, is also shown. 
