Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. II.pdf/63



THE majority of the fruits grown in China are indigenous to the country, and there are many which have not yet been introduced into the orchards of Europe. A proportion, however, of the Chinese fruits are common also to the more temperate climates of the west, although, with one or two exceptions, these varieties are not reared to a perfection in China, equal to that obtained in other countries, where the same fruit is to be found. This remark applies especially to the apples, pears, peaches, plums, and grapes in the southern provinces, where the gardeners show a strange tendency to gather and dispose of their fruit before it has fully ripened. It is less true of the northern provinces, where these fruits are nearly equal in quality and flavour to the produce of our English gardens. The principal fruits of China, as given by Dr. Williams, are comprised in the following list: — The pomegranate, carambola or tree gooseberry, mango, custard apple, pine apple, rose apple, bread-fruit, fig, guava, and olive. The whampe, lichee, langan, and- loquat are the native names of four fruits, the second of which is said to have been introduced, while the others are indigenous. The lichee, probably the finest of these, has a rough and granulated skin of a bright red colour. The pulp is whitish, opalescent, and juicy, and covers a hard seed, which, in fruit of inferior quality, is often of considerable size. A lichee may be seen in the right-hand corner of No. 59, with its skin broken and hanging away. The Averrhoa carambola, known to foreigners as the Chinese gooseberry, is shown in the same picture to the extreme left. This fruit grows in great abundance in Malayan India. To these we may add the plantain (Afusa paradisea), of which there are many varieties in Southern China and Formosa; the papaya (Carica papaya), the seeds of which are used as anthelmintics; oranges and limes of numerous kinds; and the persimmon, which looks like a huge tomato, and has its polished skin filled with a sweet succulent pulp of a pinkish colour. Wild raspberries grow in abundance in Formosa, and have a flavour equal to those of our home gardens.