104 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
lusciousness with the mangoes produced in 
the Philippines, Florida and Hawaii. The 
same is true of everything else. 
In conclusion, let me say that my 
friends in St. Louis, where I lived and 
practiced medicine for more than thirty 
years, have asked me why I live in 
Tampa. I tell them I live in Tampa be¬ 
cause I like it. I don’t have to live there 
for health or business. I have never seen 
a place yet, in all my ramblings, that is 
half so dear or sweet or rich to me in 
all that makes life enjoyable, as South 
Flcrida and dear old Tampa. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Hart: The banyan is made up 
of quite a number of trunks, is it not? 
How much of it is in the main trunk? 
Dr. Richardson: I don’t know that 
you can say that the Calcutta banyan has 
a main trunk. The trunks vary greatly 
in size; some of them being no larger 
than my arm, and others twice as large 
as my body. The trunks send out a limb, 
and it drops down a branch to the earth, 
and takes root; some of the trunks grow 
large and some seem to remain small. 
Mr. Hart: But there is no large 
trunk, like the trunk of the tulip tree in 
Mexico ? 
Dr. Richardson: There is one great 
central trunk that is quite large, but some 
of the other trunks seem as large. 
Mr.-: How large does the lo- 
quat tree grow in Japan, and how is the 
fruit? 
Dr. Richardson: I should say seven 
or eight inches in diameter. As to fruit, 
we were not there during the fruit sea¬ 
son, so I cannot say how it compares 
with ours. 
There is one other thing that occurs to 
me. The guava, too, grows to an enor¬ 
mous size in the tropics. It grows to be 
as large as our orange trees. I did not 
see any guavas in Japan. 
By the way, it rains and snows in Ja¬ 
pan, but they have rice straw mats which 
protect the fruit. It is remarkable that 
they can raise citrus fruits in Japan. We 
were there in March, and it snowed that 
month several times while we were there. 
We saw many mats thrown over the or¬ 
ange trees to protect them. They can’t 
afford fire in Japan. They warm them¬ 
selves over a little, tiny charcoal brazier 
on cold days. We would find them squat¬ 
ting over an insignificant fire, with bare 
legs, and in their funny little blue clothes. 
Charcoal is the main thing they seem to 
have in the way of fuel in Japan, in their 
houses. 
Mr. Reasoner: I would like to state 
that we are now growing leitchee. We 
have two very fine varieties, but they have 
not borne as yet. Some years ago we 
had a grafted tree on longan stock, but 
the top died out, leaving only the inferior 
longan. The longan has fruited, but is 
worthless, axcept as a stock on which to 
bud the leitchee. The Department of Ag¬ 
riculture has used this as a stock for some 
time for the leitchee, and we do not know 
yet of anything to take its place. 
