1885.] 
AMERICAN GARDEN. 
© 
FRUITS OF THE AMAZON. 
Wo li.ivo said in a previous paper (.hat no 
boiTics such as wo so call in the United 
States, aro found in tlio Brazilian forest, and 
that .any one lost therein would probably 
starve to death. 
These stateincnte aro strictly true, but 
nevertheless there aro many edible wild 
fruits, some of wide distribution, others 
found only in a very narrow limit. Tlioso 
.are mostly the fruits of largo trees and can 
only bo obtained by cutting down the tree, 
often from its size a work of great labor, or 
by gathering the fallen fruit, but the mon¬ 
keys and birds in this are usually bcfoic- 
haiid and a w.auderer would run little chance 
of obtaining .any. 
One m.ay walk days through a Urazilian 
forest and find no fruits, or sec no sign of 
.animal life and yet the woods may be full of 
both. There is another world, if we may 
so c.all it, different from that in which he 
walks. Far in the air in the tops of the 
great trees, so tall that only with a good 
glass can one see the flowers or the shape of 
the leaves. Of this upper re.alm one gels a 
reminder in the stray feather of a bird or 
some fallen flower or fruit, in a delicious 
perfume wafted from thousands of unseen 
flowers, the chatter of parrots, the song of 
birds, or the angry cries of the monkeys, 
but practically it is an unknown region and 
must ever remain so. 
The time of the ripening of the wild 
fruits is well known to the Indians and at 
the proper seasons they go to the trees to 
gat: er the fruit by climbing, or to aw.ait its 
falling to the ground. Of these fruits there 
is so gyeat a variety that we can only de¬ 
scribe a few. Of many we have been un¬ 
able to ascertain the botanical names and to 
the whites they are only known by the In¬ 
dian names. Most are very distasteful to 
the strangers, but some few are very nice. 
MUKQABA. 
The fmit of Hancornia specioset is rightly 
considered one of the most delicious of 
fruits This tree which is found in the Am¬ 
azonian delta and down the coast, and is not 
known in the interior, is very beautiful re¬ 
sembling a weeping Birch. The sap is 
milky, and hardened produces an inferioi 
quality of I’ubber ; the fruit is roundish oi 
oblong with a skin as thin as tissue paper, 
about the size of a small Fig and ripens in 
January. It is green, yellow, often with a 
red cheek, full of a melting pulp, of indis- 
cribably delicious flavor ; the seeds are flat, 
of a brownish color, covered by a closely 
adhering pulp. In Peru the Muiigaba is 
chiefly brought from the gi’eat* island o 
Marajo, where the tree grows wild in great 
quantities. It is brought in long pockets 
made of Pahn leaves which contain about 
two quarts which sell at the equivalent of 
from five to fifteen cents each; we have 
never seen the tree in cultivation, but see s 
thrown on the grormd in our yard soon pro 
duced plants. 
BACOUSY. 1 • 1 -c 
Another fruit also from Marajo, w c i 
the immense island which separates o 
nrouths of the Amazon. Botanically r i 
Platonia inslgnis, a very lofty tree with no 
31 
loliago aird la.'go pi„k flowers. The fruit is 
somcwh.U oblong, tliosizoof a largo Airplc 
I'cnu'l contains from two to 
u1 n .1 r covered by a fragrant 
tbe pr^oportion of pulp to seeds .and 
IS very small ; the shell liowevoi', is 
flton made into a very rich preserve. This 
liMitis not found in the interior, as far as 
wo know ; there is however a fruit of the 
same name but smalloi', of two kinds, of 
winch the pulp is sour, called liacoure ennna 
and cinma which is found on the middle and 
upper Amazon ; it appears to us however to 
belong to another family the fruit only being 
similar in form. 
guaokka. 
1 his is the fruit of C'hrysohalanus Icaco, 
sometimes called the Cocoa Plum; it is the 
sh.ape and size of a largo round Plum, bright 
.yellow will! white flesh, sweetish but wit?i a 
r.ank disagreeable smell. It is-usually eaten 
boiled for it is very astringent raw, but in 
either way one taste usually suffices the 
stranger. e. S. Rand. 
(To he conlintied.) 
THE CHETSANTHEMUM AT HOME. 
The idea of turning the Chrysanthemum 
into a vegetable may seem a startling one to 
many of our readers, yet the following ex¬ 
tract from a private letter from Mrs. M. L. 
Hopper, a young botanist and artist,who has 
been in Japan forseveral years past leaves no 
doubt that the “ Golden Flower” is actually 
eaten by the Japanese, .and who knows that 
Chrysanthemum Spinach may not be among 
the “novelties” of another season. 
“ Jtr. Tsuda took me to a garden to see 
some Chrysanthemums,” writes Mrs. Hop¬ 
per, “I was quite mistaken in calling any 
of them China Asteis in a former letter. 
Some of the kinds look exactly like the 
China Asters we h.ave at home; but they .are 
all Chrysanthemums. Mr. Tsuda says there 
are over five hundred varieties. Some are 
the size of the end of my little finger, .and 
yellow; then some are a little larger, of a 
beautiful cardin.al red; and still others a 
little larger, white, pink etc. The medium¬ 
sized ones .arc nearly all yellow, and these 
are the ones the Japs eat. They pickle 
them, and eat sugar or Shoyu (Japanese 
sauce) on them. The green leaves they boil, 
as we do Spinach. 
“The large flowered ones are very flue, and 
of beautiful colors; the petals are very long 
and curled around. They look like pin 
wheels going around very fast. Each stem 
is trained on a stick. On those I saw there 
wore fifteen flowers in each group. The five 
front ones were rather short; the next live a 
little higher, etc.; but the flowers ali be- 
lono-edtoonc plant, fifteen flowers to each 
o-roup, seventy-five flowers to a plant. Most 
of them are of two colors: yellow and red, 
red and tan color, red .and cream, etc. One 
side of the petal is one color, the other side 
of the petal another. 
“Although these flowers and some others 
in J.ap.an are very line, I do not Japanese 
gardening. I like afresh green field, with 
and some wild flowers, far bettei than a 
iapanie garden. The Japs call Srass 
Ss,>and they will not let a bit of it 
„g..ow; put 
^rel.° T^ere are no green fields in Japan. 
for one reason that most of the country in 
the interior is mountainous. These inoun- 
taiiiH aro very pretty; but when it comes 
to a bright green, swcct-smelling flower gar¬ 
den, such as we have at home, there is no 
such thing here. The ‘flavoring’ is left 
out of every thing here, and the song and 
the music.” 
LAVENDER ODLTUEE IN ES0LAND. 
The Lavender plant although a native of 
the countries around and near the Aleditcr- 
ranean Sea will grow as far north as Nonvay 
to latitude 00°. According to Bell’s Weekly 
Messenger a consideioible acreage of land at 
Grove, near Canterbury, has lately been 
planted with Lavender .and Mint, and the 
result has proved so successful that it lias 
been determined to establish extensive 
works on the siiot, in order to cany on the 
process of extracting the essential oils. 
It has for centuiies been grown at Hitchin- 
iii Hertfordshire, and as a commercial specu¬ 
lation it dates back for at least sixty years. 
The plants at present in cultivation do not 
produce seed, being prop.agated by slips or 
by dividing the roots. The crop is, how, 
ever, somewhat precarious. During the 
severe winter of 18C0 many of the plants 
were killed, .and of late years a peculiar 
fungus has so decimated them that the price 
of the oil has, in consequence, risen con 
siderably. The oil produced in Surrey near 
London, is considered better even than the 
imported article. 
A sandy loam with a calcareous substratum 
is regarded as the best soil for the plant, - 
while the most favorable position' for the 
Lavender plots is a sunny slope, which the 
fogs do not reach, and where light airs blow 
freely, but which is not so high as to be in 
peril of early frosts. At Mitcham, Car- 
shalton, and Beddington, localities all near 
each other, about three hundred acres are 
still under Lavender, and a considerable 
area under Mint. 
The Lavender flowers are collected in 
August and taken direct to the stiU, when 
the yield of oil to a great extent depends on 
circumstances beyond the control of the 
grower. If June and July have been bright 
the result is satisfactory; but if there has 
been dull, wet weather during these months, 
only half as much oil wiU be expressed. 
The oil from the stems is ranker and less 
v.aluable than th.at from the flowers; conse¬ 
quently, the portion which first distiUs over 
is collected separately, that which appears 
after about an hour and a halt bringing a 
lower price. Should the flowers be distilled 
sep.arately a finer oil is obtained. But .as 
the extra labor demanded by the operation 
adds .about 10s. per lb. to the cost of the oil, 
it is not usually done, since the “fraction.al 
dis’iU.ation” described, eflieots nearly the 
same end. After three years the oil—which 
has been mellowing up to that date—dete¬ 
riorates, unless it is mixed with alcohol or 
redistilled. Aspakagus. 
ASPAEAQDSIN POTS. 
At the recent exhibition in Turin, Italy, a 
number of Asparagus forced in pots attr.actod 
considerable attention. The pots were com- 
p.aratively small, and many contained each 
some twenty sprouts ; in fact, they were 
crowded with them. liVith sufficient quan¬ 
tities of liquid manure, it would seem not 
more difficult to raise Asparagus in pots 
than fruit trees and Grape vines. 
