Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/565

Rh as peaches, pears, lemons, and oranges, or known to us through commerce, as the banana and pineapple, new, strange and delicious fruits meet the eye and invite the taste. At first Americans generally have a distaste to the native fruits of Mexico, but after a time relish them very much.

The accompanying illustration shows a few of the most peculiar of these fruits. The long, white one on the left is a lemon from Jalapa; it is nearly ten inches in length and about five inches in its largest diameter. The one in the center of dish is the chirimolla (custard-apple), delicious, and bears a stronger resemblance to a delicately flavored custard than to anything else. Another species of this fruit is the anona, which is seen on the right; it is brown, while the former is green. Both have the shape and appearance of the pineapple, and flourish in the latitude of the orange and lemon. Both have black seeds. The anona is so soft it is always brought to market enveloped in palm-leaves. The small fruit on the right, in front, is a mango, and the small one to the left is the aguacatl, or vegetable butter, commonly called aguacate, grows in almost all parts of Mexico. Some are green, others black; some as large as a man's fist, others the size of a marble. If the skin is removed and the substance spread on bread with a little salt, it is a good substitute for butter; it also makes a delicious salad. By putting the seed in a bottle, as with hyacinth bulbs, this fruit may be grown in all warm latitudes. Then there are the various kinds of zapotes; chico (small), brown skin; prieto (black pulp, green skin);



amarillo (yellow pulp and skin), long, very large seed and delicious; blanca (white), green skin, white pulp, and the zapote of Santo Domingo. All have a different skin, flesh and flavor, but the yellow and white are the