fragrant stem and eaten fresh while the
morning dew still glitters on their golden-tinted cheeks; of the rare,
rosy pomegranate juice, luscious as nectar.

After eating the fruits of all climes, I place the mangosteen at the
head of the list as absolutely perfect in flavor and fragrance. The
fruit is spherical in form, about the size of a small orange, of
a rich crimson-purple hue without, and filled with a succulent,
half-transparent pulp that melts in the mouth. There are three species
of the mangosteen tree, but of only one, the _Garania mangostina_, is
the fruit edible. The others are valuable for timber, and the bark
for the manufacture of a dye that resists the attacks of every sort of
insect.

Next to the mangosteen I should name the custard-apple (_Anona
squamosa_), a rich and delicate fruit of the form and dimensions of a
medium-sized quince, but made up of lesser cones, each with its apex
directed toward the centre, and each containing a smooth black seed.
The pulp is pure white, about the consistency of a baked custard, and
in flavor very like strawberries and cream.

The delicious soursap is very similar to the custard-apple, but of
larger size and slightly acid in taste. The bearded, rosy rambustan
(_Nephelium lappaceum_) looks like a mammoth strawberry, but when
the outer hairy covering has been removed a semi-transparent pulp is
revealed, in taste so similar to our best Malaga grapes that a blind
man would be unable to distinguish them.

Pineapples are good and abundant all over South-eastern Asia, but are
in their perfection at Singapore and Malacca, weighing frequently
four pounds or more. Passing, one warm afternoon, along the Singapore
bazaar, I noticed a Chinese fruit-dealer who had among other
delicacies outspread before him the largest and finest pineapples I
had ever seen. As I inquired the price, the Celestial, after a long
harangue on the extraordinary excellence of his wares, and the trouble
he had taken to obtain them, expressed a hope that he should not
be considered extortionate in selling them so very high, the price
demanded for a whole four-pound pineapple, peeled, sliced, and
ready for eating, being the equivalent of half a cent! The ordinary,
medium-sized fruit could be purchased, he knew, at one-fifth of that
sum, and his conscience, no doubt, was chiding him for extortion.

One of the most singular-looking fruits is the jack-fruit (_Artocarpus
integrifolia_), growing in all its