Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
Sept.,  1886. 
Tropical  Fruits. 
445 
Guiana  ;  melons  from  Barbadoes,  prickly  pears  and  dates  from  British 
India,  and  most  luscious  pine-apples  from  Singapore. 
Although  not  exclusively  a  tropical  fruit,  the  orange  is  found  and 
flourishes  throughout  the  eastern  and  western  Tropics.  Taking  this 
fruit  as  an  example,  it  is  remarkable  what  a  large  increase  has  taken 
place  in  the  consumption  of  this  fruit  in  the  United  Kingdom  during 
the  last  fifteen  years.  In  1870,  the  number  of  oranges  imported  into 
the  United  Kingdom  was  80,000,000.  In  1885  this  number  had 
increased  to  500,000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  fourteen  per  head  of  popu- 
lation. Dates  are  consumed  to  the  extent  of  5000  tons  per  annum, 
while  cocoa-nuts  are  imported  by  the  shipload. 
Being  the  nearest  to  England,  as  well  as  the  most  productive  in  the 
way  of  tropical  fruits,  the  West  Indian  Islands  naturally  supply,  and 
should  supply,  the  English  market  more  readily  than  any  other.  At 
the  present  day  in  the  West  Indian  Islands  the  value  of  the  fruit  ex- 
ported is  nearly  £400,000  per  annum. 
In  Jamaica  alone  fruit  is  annually  exported  to  the  value  of  over  a 
quarter  of  a  million  sterling — consisting  chiefly  of  bananas,  oranges, 
pine-apples  and  cocoa-nuts.  The  Bahamas  export  chiefly  pine- 
apples, both  fresh  and  canned,  to  the  value  of  £50,000  per  annum. 
Trinidad  grows  and  exports  chiefly  cocoa-nuts.  British  Honduras, 
connected  by  a  mail  route  with  New  Orleans,  exports  bananas,  cocoa- 
nuts  and  plantains  to  the  value  of  £15,000  per  annum.  Montserrat 
is  chiefly  interested  in  limes,  and  exports  limes  and  lime-juice  to  the 
annual  value  of  £11,000.  Dominica  exports  limes,  tamarinds  and 
concentrated  lime-juice  to  the  value  of  £4000 ;  while  flat  and  sugary 
Antigua  exports  only  pine-apples,  but  those,  though  small,  of  very 
superior  quality.  From  their  geographical  position  it  is  only  natural 
to  suppose  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  fruit  of  the  West  Indian  Is- 
lands finds  its  way  to  the  United  States  and  Canada,  where  there  are 
nearly  fifty  millions  of  people,  with  all  of  whom  fruit  enters  largely 
into  their  daily  food. 
The  banana  (Musa  sapientum)  is  the  chief  fruit  at  present  cultivated 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  this  fruit  is  the  one  which  in  the  future  will 
be  more  largely  offered  in  the  English  market  than  any  other.  There 
are  numerous  varieties  of  this  fruit  under  cultivation ;  the  Martinique 
banana  is  found  the  most  profitable  to  grow  for  export,  although  a 
smaller  fruit,  known  as  the  fig  banana,  is  more  luscious  and  more 
highly  esteemed  locally  as  a  dessert  fruit.  Jamaica  exports  bananas  to 
