There is no other country and no other island in the world that has such a variety of indigenous fruit trees as Tahiti. Add to these trees that have furnished the natives with an abundance of fruit for centuries, the fruit trees that have been introduced since the island was discovered, and many of which flourish now in a wild state in the forests, and it will give some idea concerning the wealth of fruit to be found in the forests of Tahiti. Most of the inland habitations away from the coast have been abandoned long ago, and in all these places, in the valleys and high up on the mountainsides, many kinds of exogenous fruit trees, planted by former generations, have gained a permanent foothold. Here they multiply, blossom, ripen their fruit, and all the islanders have to do is to gather the annual crop. Here delicious little thin-skinned oranges grow, and the finest lemons and limes can be had for the gathering. The poor find here

Fruits of all kinds in coat

Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk or shell,
She gathers tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand.

MILTON.

Nothing reminds one more of Tahiti being the forbidden Garden of Eden, than the abundance of fruit that grows in the forests without the inter

vention of man. Some kind of fruit can be found during all seasons of the year, and

Small store will serve, where store

All seasons, ripe for use, hangs on the stalk.
MILTON.

It is here not as in most countries where
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The redd'ning orange and the swelling grain.

ADDISON.

as the poorest of the poor have access to Nature's orchard and can fill their palm-leaf baskets with the choicest fruits. The Tahitian

He feeds on fruits, which of their own accord
The willing ground and laden tree afford.

DRYDEN.

This mingling, in the most friendly manner, of the old forest trees with familiar fruit trees introduced from distant lands and laden with golden fruit, is a most beautiful sight. The fruit trees stand their ground even against the most aggressive shrubs, and it is often no easy matter to reach the ripe hiding fruit in the dense network of branches thrown around and between the branches of the imprisoned tree. What a blessing these acid fruits are to the natives, sweltering under the rays of the tropic sun! How easy it is for them to make a cooling, refreshing drink! Take a young cocoanut, open it at one end, and add to its milk the juice of a lime or a lemon, and the healthiest and most refreshing drink is made.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves,

To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
With the deep orange glowing through the green,
Their lighter glories lend.
THOMSON.

'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 Lauracea, 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.