My mango (my fair*) is the embellisher of the garden,
The most lovely fruit of Hindustān.

Such mangoes as are good are excellent. Many are eaten, but few are good of their kind. They pluck most of them unripe, and ripen them in the house. While unripe the mango makes excellent tarts,* and extremely good marma­lade.* In short, this is the best fruit of Hindustān. The tree bears a great weight of fruit.* Many praise the mango so highly as to give it the preference to every kind of fruit, the musk-melon excepted; but it does not appear to me to justify their praises. It resembles the kārdi peach, and ripens in the rains. There are two kinds of it.* One kind* they squeeze and soften in the hand, and then, making a hole in its side, press it and suck the juice. The other is like the kārdi peach.* They take off its skin, and eat it. Its leaf somewhat resembles that of the peach. Its trunk is ill-looking and ill-shaped. In Bengal and Gujerāt the mangoes are excellent.

Plantain.

Another of their fruits is the plantain.* The Arabs call it mauz. Its tree is not very tall, and, indeed, is not entitled to the appellation of tree; it is something between a tree and a vegetable.* Its leaf bears some likeness to that of the amān-kara, but the plantain leaf is two gaz in length and nearly one in breadth. A shoot resembling a heart springs up from its centre. The bud of the plantain is on this shoot. This large bud resembles a sheep’s heart. From the root of every leaf that opens round this bud, a row of six or seven flowers springs out. These flowers so rising in a row, afterwards become rows of plantains. When the shoot which resembles a heart expands and blows, the leaves of that large bud opening, the rows of the plantain flowers become visible.* The plantain has two good qualities: the one is, that it is easily peeled; the other, that it has no stones, and is not stringy. It is rather longer and thinner than the brinjāl.* It is not very sweet. The plantain of Bengal, however, is extremely sweet, and has a very beautiful tree. It has very broad leaves of bright green and is an elegant plant.

Ambli, or
Indian
date.

Another is the ambli,* which name they give to the Indian date.* It has small indented leaves, precisely like the būia,* but the leaves of this tree are smaller. It is a very beautiful tree, and yields a profusion of shade. It grows to a great size, and abounds in a wild state.

Mahweh, or
moura.

Another is the mahweh,* which is also called the gul-chikān. This also is a very wide-spreading tree. The houses of the natives of Hindustān are chiefly constructed of the timber of this tree. They extract a spirit from the flowers of the mahweh. They dry its flowers, and eat them like raisins. It is from them likewise that they extract the liquor.* They* bear a great resemblance to the kishmish,* and have rather a disagreeable, sickly taste; but the smell of the flower is not agreeable.* It may be eaten.* This tree likewise grows wild. Its fruit is ill-tasted. The stone is rather large, and its shell thin. They extract an oil from the kernel.

Kirni.

Another is the kirni.* This, though not a wide-spread tree, at the same time is not a small one. Its fruit is of a yellow colour. It is smaller than the jujube. In taste it bears a perfect resemblance to the grape. It leaves rather a bad flavour behind, but it is a good fruit, and is eaten.* The skin of its stone is thin.

Jāman.

Another is the jāman.* Its leaf perfectly resembles that of the tāl,* but is thicker and greener. It is on the whole a fine-looking tree. Its fruit resembles the black grape, but has a more acid taste, and iś not very good.

Kermerik.

Another is the kermerik.* It is fluted with five sides. In size it may be equal to a ghīnālū,* * and in length four or five* fingers-breadth. When ripe it is yellow. This fruit, too, has no stone. If plucked unripe, it is very bitter; when well ripened, it has an agreeably sweet acid, and is a pleasant sweet-flavoured fruit.

Kadhil (or
jack).

Another is the kadhil (or jack).* This has a very bad look and flavour. It looks like a sheep’s stomach stuffed and made into a haggis.* It has a sweet sickly taste. Within it are stones* like a filbert; they bear a considerable resemblance to the date, but the stones are rounder and not so long, and the substance softer than that of the date. They are eaten. This fruit is very adhesive; on account of this adhesive quality, many rub their mouths* with oil before eating them. They grow not only from the branches and trunk of the tree, but even from its root. You would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises.

Badhil.

Another is the badhil,* which may be about the size of an apple. It is not bad-smelling, but is very insipid and tasteless.*

Ber.

Another is the ber,* which in Persian they call kunār. It is of various kinds, and is rather longer than the alūcheh* (or plum). There is another species of it, of the bulk and appearance of the Hussaini grape; but this last sort is seldom good. I have seen a ber in Bandīr* which was very excellent. This species casts its leaves under the con­stellations of Taurus and Gemini;* in Cancer and Leo, which is the season of the rains, it regains its leaves, and becomes fresh and flourishing; in Aquarius and Pisces, its fruit ripens.

Karonda.

Another is the karonda,* which grows on shrubby bushes like the jīkeh of my native country. The jīkeh grows in the hill country; this grows in the plain. Its flavour is that of the marmenjān, but is sweeter and less juicy.*

Paniāla.

Another is the paniāla,* which is larger than the plum, and resembles the red crab apple. It has an acid taste, and is pleasant. Its tree is taller than the pomegranate, and its leaf resembles the almond leaf, but is less.

Gūler.

Another is the gūler,* whose fruit springs from the trunk of the tree. It resembles the fig. The gūler is a very tasteless thing.

Amleh.

Another is the amleh,* which is likewise fluted with five sides. It is like the unblown cotton pod, and is a wretched harsh-tasted fruit. When made into marmalade* it is not bad, and is very wholesome. Its tree is handsome, with very small leaves.

Chirūnji.

Another is the chirūnji.* This tree grows on the hills. Its kernel is very pleasant. It is somewhat between the kernel of the walnut and that of the almond, and is rather smaller than that of the pistachio, and round. It is put into custards and sweetmeats.*

Date.

Another is the date,* which, though not peculiar to Hindustān, yet is described here, as it is not found in our country. The date-tree is found likewise in Lamghān. Its branches all issue from one place, near the top of the tree. Its leaves extend from the one end of the branch to the other, shooting out on each side. The trunk of the tree is uneven and ill-coloured. Its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger They say that the date alone, of all the vegetable kingdom, resembles the animal kingdom in two respects: the one is, that when you cut off the head of an animal it perishes; and if you cut off the top of the date-tree, it withers and dies: the other is, that as no animal bears without concourse with the male, in like manner, if you do not bring a branch of the male date-tree, and shake it over* the female, it bears no fruit. I cannot vouch for the truth of these remarks. The top of the date-tree which has been mentioned is called its cheese. The cheese of the date is that place where its branches and leaves shoot out, and it has very much the appearance of a white cheese. From this white cheesy substance the branches and leaves shoot out. When these branches and leaves have some­what expanded, the leaves wax greener. This white sub­stance, which they call the cheese of the date, is rather pleasant tasted. The pith* bears some resemblance to the kernel of the walnut. They make an incision in that part of the tree where the cheese lies, and insert a date-leaf in the wound, in such a way, that whatever water flows from the opening, must run down this leaf; this leaf they fix to the mouth of an earthen pot, and tie the pot to the tree; all the liquid that flows from the wound is collected in this pot. If drunk immediately, the liquor is sweetish; if it stand three or four days, they say that it acquires an intoxicating quality. On one occasion, when I had gone out to survey Bāri,* while examining the districts on the banks of the river Chambal, in the course of our journey we chanced upon a valley, inhabited by people who employed themselves in drawing this liquor. We drank a great deal of it, and felt no symptoms of intoxication.* A great quantity of it must probably be taken, as its intoxicating powers are very small.

Cocoanut-
tree.