A New Fruit.

Otago Witness, Issue 1913, 9 October 1890, Page 6

A New Fruit.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE SHADDOCK AND ITB GROWING POPULARITY " It is not often that we get anything in the shape of a novelty in the fruit line," a large dealer said, •• but we did have a fruit the past spring that was apparently new to most people. It was the shaddock, and it hid a grand run., Now it is out of season and can't be bad at any price. But next season I expect the demand for it will be greater than ever. The shaddock has been growing in popularity steadily for a few years, and last season it took a big jump to the front, so that everyone was eating it before the season wan closed, And the shaddock, I think, will become morn and more popular as its excellent qualities are fully appreciated. 11 We get all from Florida. The fruit raised there ia much nicer than that of the West Indies, and I doubt if we get any at all from the West Indies. I don't think the shaddock oan be properly called a fashionable fruit. It's too useful in itself to be fashionable. Tou see, it'B a very large fruit, not at all pretty, very hard to handle when eating it ; not at all like the mango and tambourine, which ladies can eat with their gloves on. They're fashionable fruito. People eat the shaddock beaause they like it. If it was a fashionable fruit they wouldn't call it shaddock. They'd put some French or other odd name on." And, speaking of the name of this fruit, it may be interesting to know that i v , is derived from an Englishman, Captain Sbaddcok, who introduced it into the West Indies. The ahaddook belongs to the order of Aurantiacge or orangeworfs. The four grp&t branches of this family which are the best known are the citrus limonum or lemon tree, the citrus aurant'mm or orange tree, the citrus limetta or lime tree, and the citrus decumarm or shaddock tree. The last named is the eriant of the order. The fruit itsolf ia a cross between the lemon and the orange, and combines j^any of the beet qualities of both. The fhaddock grows very much as the orange does, except that the branches of the treos are very long aud almost as thin as wire. They never break, but bend down with the weight of their fruit. The leaves are very long and tough and narrow. —Washington Herald,