482 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Nov., 1901. 
flavour of strawberries! It is curious that this flavour should be imitated by 
two such distinct fruits as the grape and the guava. 
Of the persimmon T know nothing, except what I read of it. Of the 
mangosteen I know nothing from personal experience. Everyone who has 
eaten it declares it to be a delicious fruit. I was informed that it had been 
introduced into the lower ranges of the Nilgiri Hills. Why they have not 
introduced it into Ceylon and cultivated it for commercial purposes is a 
mystery. 
T think I have enumerated all the choice fruit trees of which I have 
experience, and which might be grown in Imperial gardens for dissemination 
throughout suitable places in the empire. In such gardens these trees could 
be studied, and the best mode of cultivating them and propagating them 
discovered. Moreover, it is only in such institutions that new varieties could 
be evolved from seed, for no private garden could possibly undertake the 
creation of new varieties of the fruits herein mentioned on the scale that would 
be required for success. 
It might be said, especially with regard to oranges—why undertake such 
a troublesome and expensive job, when shiploads of oranges are already 
imported from various places? Well, no one will say that apples are not 
grown in this country in large quantities—the bewildering number of varieties 
at the shows testifies to this—yet shiploads of apples come from Canada and 
the United States. 
What is being done in America with regard to fruit trees should be a 
lesson to the rulers of the British Empire. 
I have left out of consideration a large number of varieties of the Citrus 
tribe which are to be found in India, such as lemons, limes, and citrons, &e. 
The latter might be utilised in India and elsewhere for making candied citron- 
peel. On one occasion I gaye some citrons to a lady ‘friend, and explained to 
her how this preserve was made. She turned outa candied peel which was 
much finer than any I could obtain in the shops, and the late Mr. Philip 
Crowley, of Waddon, always had most excellent home-made citron-peel. 
The number of varieties of citron to be found in India is astonishing, as a 
glance at the “ Oranges and Lemons of India and Ceylon” will show. 
There is one fruit which must not be omitted in this sketch. It is the 
red-fleshed pummelo of Bombay. When cut across, its pulp is of the colour 
of raw beef, and it is the thinnest-skinned pummelo that I ever came across. 
It is fine-flayoured and juicy, and when the large juice vesicles are taken out 
and mixed with sugar they are delicious. This pummelo is of the size of a 
child’s head, and sometimes of the size of a child’s head affected with 
hydrocephalus ! : 
T have done with these fine fruits, but there is one plant which should 
be grown largely in India itself—I mean the date palm. In Imperial gardens 
experiments might be systematically undertaken with the imumerable varieties 
of the date palm which are known in Asia and Africa; about 150 at least, 
although not all of first-class quality. ‘The success obtained with these trees by 
the superintendent of the Saharunpore Garden proves undoubtedly that the 
notion that the date-tree cannot be grown successfully in India for its fruit is 
an antiquated superstition. India is written with five letters, but it is as large as 
Europe without Russia! The date-tree experiments, if undertaken, should be 
under the care of a practical dategrower imported from the Persian Gulf. 
Tt is not intended in this sketch that Imperial gardens should have any- 
thing to do with growing flower plants and vegetables. That is already done 
in provincial horticultural gardens. The object should be to collect in one 
place, and under one supervision, as many of the choice fruit trees that can be 
grown in that locality, for the purpose of studying them, describing them, 
classifying them, and discovering the best mode of cultivating them, with the 
object of disseminating them throughout the empire in suitable localities for the 
health and enjoyment of the people and for commercial purposes. 
