Evening star., 1945-08-14
Letters to The Star
DIR. Fairchild Proudly Presents
A Luscious Fruit To America

A Luscious Fruit To America
To the Editor Of The Star:
The first mangosteen tea party is
set Tor August Is at the Fairchild Trop-
1cal Garden in Coconut Grove, Fla, out
under the palms there the friends of the
garden will gather at eve to get their
flrSt taste of what for centuries has
been famous as the queen of tropical
fruits. This is the fruit of which it is
said that Queen Victoria offered sl0 for
the first examples which should be
brought to her from India.
A trial shipment of fruits has Just
arrived by air from Honduras. Picked
from the beautiful orchard trees In the
early morning, they were already in
Miami in the evening and being tasted
by eager plant lovers to whom the
name has been known from childhood,
for no other fruit perhaps has been so
often written about or so extolled by
travellers to the Far East especially to
the Dutch East Indies where it no
doubt originated
Fifty years ago in the great gardens
OF Buitenzorg, Java, / first tasted the
mangosteen and selected IT as for me,
not for others. the most delicate of all
the fruits I had eaten and 1 determined
then to make every effort to get it astab-
lished in the United States or adjoining
countries where 1t was unknown.
AS I sit here with one of the fruits
from the mangosteen orchard in Lam
cetilla, Honduras, before me, less than
48 hours OH the tree, can scarcely be-
lieve what is happening; that am wit
Messing the debut of this magnificent
tropical fruit on the North American
menu and that already tons of mango
steens are ripening and waiting for en-
try into the markets of this country
My dreams and those OF nv friend
and associate in the work of plant in
PRODUCTION, Wilson Popenoe, are COM
ing true, for, at last through the untir-
ing persistence OF a great organiza-
ton, the United Fruit Co. there has
come into existence real mangosteen
orchard. such as is not to be found any,
where else In the West Indies or Gen.
tral or South America. 1t is through
the kindness OF v. c. Dunlap of the
company that the initial mangosteen
party will be possible.
How Seeds Were Gathered.
In 1926, when Wilson Popenoe left
the Once of Plant Introduction and
joined the United Fruit Co. he started
the collecting Of seeds for a mangosteen
orchard, to be located in beautiful val
ley called Lancetilla in Honduras
He discovered single tree in finca
belonging to Mrs. Partor, on the shore
OF Lake Izabal in Guatemala, and Sc
cured all the seeds he could from it,
He imported from the great seed firm
OF Vlmorin Andrieux dS Ciex of Paris
seeds from Cochin China, and Mrs,
Falrchild and I. who were on the Allison
Armour expedition to the Dutch East
Indies in 1926, found superb fruits in
Penang and sent quantity of seeds
to Mr.. Popenoe from there. These
formed the start of an orchard which
now consists OF TOO trees and has come
into bearing and last year bore over 80
tons OF mangosteens. I believe this is
now the largest mangosteen orchard in
the world, but it represents only q be-
ginning.
The incredible slowness with which
this superb fruit has come into large
production has many explanations, some
due to the soil requirements, others to
its sensitivity to cold and drouth and
others to the recently discovered fact
that the plant is evidently of hybrid
origin requiring no pollen bearing par
ent and only producing parthenogenetic
seeds. Difficulties connected with its
early life held back planting. Specimen
trees have stood in the botanic gardens
OF Jamaica, Trinidad, Dominica and
Haiti but, although fruiting, have not
been planted out in orchard form.
/ am fearful that so much praise has
been heaped on this my favorite fruit
that the attempt to popularize it by
means OF party may create rivalries
and that instead of learning its superb
qualities there will be some who are
given to invidious comparison and who
may compare it unfavorably with the
mango or the peach and decide that
slider that it has incompatible qualities
as fruit for invalids and those who
are not SO keen to have quantity as
superb duality Of flavor. A basket of
mangosteens sent as a gift to one in
hospital scarcely could be rivaled
as delicacy. Its ivory white flesh set
in pink cup has only to be seen to
be admired by any one with esthetic
tastes.
Canal Zone Experiment.
When in 1922 my friend Dorsett of
the Office of Plant Introduction and
took wardian cases of mangosteen
plants to Panama and established them
there we hoped that the residents would
take up its culture and that there would
result orchards of the fruit tree in the
Canal Zone but the conditions for its
culture have not been ideal there and
today little but scattered paintings have
resulted.
As might have been expected, 1t has
required the initiative and the capital
of great frutt-growing organization
to bring into existence a commercial
fruit plantation of mangosteens.
Doubtless all sorts Of problems will face
the company in connection with the
introduction of this new fruit to the
American markets but have confidence
that success will crown their long-con-
tinued efforts.
1t is with feeling of greatest pride
and satisfaction that am able to attach
my name to this enterprise if only in
very minor way and perhaps my many