It is claimed that the large apple family is the descendant of the Siberian crab-apple, modified by climate, soil and grafting. This statement appears to me incorrect, as I have seen a tree in the Hawaiian forests which bears a real sweet apple which in shape and taste has a strong resemblance to the apples of our orchards. The tree is from twenty to thirty feet in height, slender and few branched. The same tree is found in the forests of Tahiti, and its fruit is much sought after by the natives. It would be difficult to connect the wild apple tree of the South Sea Islands with the Siberian crab-apple, to which it bears no resemblance, either in the appearance of the tree or its fruit. Let us now consider a few of the fruit trees which adorn and enrich the forests of Tahiti:
Alligator Pear, or Avocado.—This is the most delicate and luscious of all the fruit-products of the Tahitian forests, where it is found in its wild state in great abundance. It is the fruit of the Persea gratissima, a tree belonging to the natural order Lauraceæ, an evergreen tree of the tropic regions of America and the South Sea Islands. It attains a height of from thirty to seventy feet, with a slender stem and dome-like, leafy top. The branches, like the stem, are slender, and ascend on quite an acute angle from their base. The leaves resemble those of the laurel. The flowers are small, and are produced toward the extremities of the branches. The fruit is a drupe, but in size and shape resembles a large pear. The rind is green, thin, and somewhat rough on the outside. In the center of the pulp is a large, heart-shaped kernel, wrapped in a thin, paper-like membrane. The pulp is green or yellowish, not very sweet, but of a delicious taste and exiquisite flavor, and contains about eight per cent, of a greenish fixed oil. The way to eat this delicious fruit is to cut it in two lengthwise, remove the kernel, season with sweet oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and eat with a teaspoon. In the form of a salad it is one of the daintiest of all dishes. The softness of the pulp and the richness in oil have led the French to call this fruit "Vegetable butter." The seeds of the alligator pear have come into medical use at the instance of Dr. Froehlig, and particularly through the efforts of Park, Davis & Co., a manufacturing firm. The alligator pear is a very perishable fruit, which accounts for its scarcity and fabulous price in our markets.
Pawpaw or Papaya is the fruit of the Carica Papaya, natural order Papayaceæ. It is an exceedingly graceful, branchless little tree, which grows to the height of from ten to twenty feet and is of short vitality. Its natural home is in South America and the islands of the Pacific. The cylindrical stem is grayish white, roughened in circles where the previous whorls of leaves had their attachment. The leaves are from twenty to thirty inches long and are arranged in the form of a whorl at the very top of the stem, where also the fruit grows, close to the stem. The fruit when ripe is light yellow, very similar to a small melon, and with a somewhat similar flavor. The skin is very thin and the pulp exceedingly soft, hence a very perishable fruit. The seeds are numerous, round and black, and when chewed have, in a high degree, the pungency of cresses. It requires time to acquire a taste for this healthy, very digestible tropical fruit, but when once developed, it is keenly relished. It is eaten either raw or boiled. It possesses digestive properties of considerable value, which have been utilized in the preparation of a vegetable pepsin. The acrid, milky sap of the tree or the juice of the fruit much diluted with water, renders any tough meat washed with it, tender for cooking purposes, by separating the muscular fibres (Dr. Holder). It is said even the exhalations from the tree have this property; and meats, fowls, etc., are hung among its leaves to prepare them for cooking. The tree is of very rapid growth, bears fruit all the year and is very prolific.
Mango is the fruit of Mangifera Indica. It is a stately, broad-branching, very shady tree, from thirty to forty feet in height, belonging to the natural order Anacardiaceæ. The stem is short, from eight to ten feet, when it divides into long, graceful branches, with an impenetrable foliage, a fine protection against the rain and the scorching rays of the sun. The bark is almost black and somewhat rough. The leaves are in clusters, lanceolate, entire, alternate, petioled, smooth, shining, tough, and about seven inches long, with an agreeable resinous smell. The flowers are small, reddish white or yellowish, in large, erect, terminal panicles. The fruit is kidney-shaped, smooth, greenish yellow, with or without ruddy cheeks, varying greatly in size and quality, and containing a large, flattened stone, which is covered on the outside with fibrous filaments, largest and most abundant in the inferior varieties, some of which consist chiefly of fibre and juice, while the finer ones have a comparatively solid pulp. The size varies from that of a large plum to that of a man's fist. The largest and finest mangoes are found in Tahiti. The fruit is luscious and agreeably sweet, with an aromatic flavor and slightly acid taste. The kernels are nutritious, and have been cooked for food in times of scarcity. A mango tree laden with its golden fruit is a pleasing sight, and reminds one vividly of a Christmas tree.
Lime.—The fruit of Citrus Planchoni, Citrus Australis Planchon. The lime tree of Tahiti was undoubtedly introduced from Eastern Australia, where it is found as a noble tree, fully forty feet high, or, according to C. Hartmann, even sixty feet high. In Tahiti the tree is small, and in the dense jungles hardly exceeds the size of a shrub. The stem, as well as its numerous slender, wide-spreading, prickly branches, is very crooked. The fruit is similar to the lemon, but much smaller in size, being only about one and one-half inches in diameter, and almost globular in shape, with a smooth, green, thin rind and an extremely acid, pungent juice. For a thirst-quenching drink, the lime-juice is far preferable to the lemon.
Pomegranate.—The fruit of Punica Granatum, a shrub belonging to the natural order Granataceæ. This historic and useful shrub grows luxuriantly and with little or no care, in the fertile, sun-kissed soil of Tahiti. More than one-half of the interior of the oval purple fruit consists of large black seeds. The seedless variety has evidently never been introduced. The juice is subacid and very palatable. The flowers are ornamental, and sometimes are double. The rind of the fruit and the bark of the roots possess valuable medicinal properties. Consider for a moment what nature has done for the support, comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants of Tahiti, and we are ready to admit the truth of what the prince of poets said:
Here is everything advantageous to life.
SHAKESPEARE.
And we can answer with a positive yes the question proposed by another famous poet, in the beautiful stanza:
Know'st thou the land where the lemon trees bloom,
Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom,
Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,
And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose?
GOETHE.
