persimmons are known. The wild form from the mountain sides 
has small, sour, puckery fruits largely consisting of seeds. A 
relative from Mexico has greenish fruits with excellent flesh of 
about the color and consistency of axle grease. 
The fig in all probability was native to southern Arabia, ages 
ago. Since then forms apparently wild have covered the whole of 
western Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa. Once it 
reached the shores of the Mediterranean, its distribution was rapid 
though the channels of this distribution lay through two different 
peoples, the ancient sea wanderers, the Phoenicians and the 
Greeks. The Phoenicians had distributed it over the major part 
of the great Mediterranean basin in all probability before it 
reached the Greeks. The first authentic reference to the fig in 
Greece was about 700 B. C. Later the Athenians were nicknamed 
“fig-eaters”. The she-wolf nursed the infants Romulus and 
Remus under a fig tree in ancient Italy, so runs the legend. And 
from our school readers we learned how Cato held up a bunch of 
fresh figs from Carthage (Tunis) as evidence of how near the 
hated country was to Rome. The fig is supposed to have reached 
China about a century before Christ was born. The Spanish and 
French first brought it to America. Later, our government inter- 
ested itself in importing fine varieties. For about a thousand 
years, the figs of Algarve, Portugal, dominated the markets of 
western Europe. Then the figs of Smyrna, of which, in good 
years, 30,000 tons are exported, replaced them. The Californian 
product exceeds 4,000 tons. Over 400 varieties of figs have been 
described. Many close relatives of the fig are known, among 
which is the common rubber plant. 
Gooseberries, cranberries, currants, groundcherries and blue- 
berries are comparatively modern fruits, their commercial culti- 
vation in most cases not dating back more than four hundred 
years. In fact the cranberry industry is not more than one hundred 
years old and largely American, while cultivation of blueberries 
is still in an experimental stage though Mr. Coville of our Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has demonstrated that it can be done. Most 
of the cultivated varieties of these fruits differ but little from the 
wild forms. The same is also true of many tropical fruits. 
One hesitates to start a discussion of tropical fruits so near 
the end of the allotted space. First, because they are legion, 
second because there is such a difference of opinion concerning 
their merits, and third because of the great differences among the 
fruits of the same name. In New York, when one buys a mango, 
he never specifies the kind he wishes as he does with apples. 
Consequently his first experience may be an unfortunate one. 
Mine was. It tasted like pumpkin with threads drawn through it, 
flavored with turpentine. Subsequent experiences however largely 
convinced me of the veracity of those writers who claim it to be 
one of the finest of fruits. The best varieties have absolutely no 
stringiness nor hint of turpentine flavor. There is great variation 
in size, some varieties having fruits no larger than an English 
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