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The Mango Relatives of Cochin China; -Those with Five-Stamen Flowers

The Mango Relatives of Cochin China; -Those with Five-Stamen Flowers

250 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1948 which resulted in higher percentage loss could be improved by use of more re from decay, shriveling, and case hard frigeration, both in transportation and in ening. holding in storage to stabilize the The experiments showed that it is pos market at times of overshipment. The sible to extend the storage life and shelf results also show that a much more val life of Persian limes with several kinds of uable consumer type package could be wrapping materials and with refrigera made of any one of several different tion temperature of 45°F. Many of the wrapping materials proven of value in films showed advantages when used in these experiments for preserving better refrigerated temperatures but were not quality of FloridaPersian limes than the of value when removed to room tempera window-type package which is generally tures .from refrigeration, whereas others used at the present time and has no were found beneficial under both con moistureproofness. ditions of storage. Not only will further investigations be Refrigeration itself proved to be very made as new wrapping materials become valuable for extending the period of available but willalso include different marketability of limes, the results in types of consumer packages as well as dicating that the whole lime industry the over-all carton or container.

THE RELATIVES OF COCHIN ; -THOSE WITH FIVE-

David made my way to the Botanic Garden in Biological Nucleus where, as though he had been awaiting me, I found Dr. Haffner, one Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada of those delightful French botanists who introduction is a long drawn-out in those days were stationed in * the game in which there are critical mo French Colonies, and were in charge of ments, as I suppose there are in all life. pretty much all the agricultural work I am reminded of this as I attempt to put that was going on in them. We "hit it down here the incidents which have led off" at once, for he was interested in up to the writing of this paper. bringing new crops into the colonies, The Messagerie Maritime boat that I and when he discovered I could speak boarded in in the spring of 1902 French, he told me how he was in made a call of 24 hours in the port of triguing the Annamites into growing Saigon, capital of the French colony of Javanese peanuts, that were better than Cochin China. Twenty-four hours is a their own, merely by forbidding any pretty short time to explore a country from being taken from his experimental like Cochin China, but I was hurrying plantings. through to Japan to meet my patron, When I askedabout , Dr. Haff- Barbour Lathrop. ner said I could find in the market a It was the 16th of April when I got mango which he called the "Cambodi- off the boat in the early morning and ana" which came practically true to ; FAIRCHILD: MANGO RELATIVES 251 it was planted everywhere and never stamen, with no sign of pistil. It can grafted. There was no time to be lost scarcely escape attention that even if for my boat was sailing the next morn only a few of this great number set fruit, ing, so I drove to the market and bought and if each bears but 2 every one of the mangos I could find mature , you would still have a there. I hadn't even time to return and good crop. But I could not help won bid Dr. Haffner adieu, for the job of dering what might be the result if some cleaning the and packing them for plant breeder had at his disposal some shipment took a half dozen "boys" from close relatives of the mango to cross with the hotel and me all the afternoon, and it. I had just time to get aboard the next I remember seeing a of Cochin morning with the box. The seeds were China with carefully drawn plates and well packed and arrived by freight 5 among them some of the mango flowers weeks later in Washington and were en with 5 large, well developed . tered in the S. P. I. Inventory as 8701. As I examined with my hand lens the As I was cleaning the seeds I noticed mango blossoms on all of my 20-odd there was some variation in the fruits, varieties and found always a single, more but that, judging from seedlings I had or less well developed stamen and some seen elsewhere, it seemed to be a "sur staminodia, occasionally almost as large prisingly constant variety." The seeds as the stamen, my mind reverted to those were polyembryonic. drawings and I determined to have an In the strange language of the Anna- other look at them. mites they were known as Xoai Voi. It so happened that this summer I This variety or its seedlings have come stayed in Cambridge quite near the to be known as the Saigon in the mango Gray so I walked over to see region of south Florida, and there are if I could find that Flora. various varieties of it known. Many of Hoping to find my old friend Dr. my friends prefer its somewhat acid Fernald there, although he had retired, I flavor to that of the rich Indian mangos, slipped a couple of my best mango fruits such as the Alphonse or the Borsha. in my pocket, thinking they would serve I have often regretted that my stay as an introduction to my subject. As I with Dr. Haffner had been so short, for had half expected, there was the great he had such a fund of information about botanist just where I had seen him sev tropical . eral years ago; at his desk, with 2 This spring during the best flowering herbarium sheets before him. He was I have ever had on my mangos, I spent deciding a question of whether two of some time examining the -clusters. the American violets were identical or I was tempted to count the amazing not;—measuring carefully each dimen number of flowers which compose a sion of the dried , the flower single inflorescence, but after counting peduncles, etc. about a thousand I decided to estimate As he looked up and recognized me I the number instead. Ten thousand laid on the table before him my two would not be an exaggeration I presume, mangos, without saying what they were. counting the flowers with pistil and He looked at them carefully and then single stamen and those with only the said: 252 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1948

"They are not apples, but I never saw . As I poured over the them before. What are they?" remarkable plates, drawn by E. Delpy on "Well, Professor" I said, "they are stone half a century ago, a consciousness specimens of a fruit which is eaten by came over me of the tragedy, so to say, more millions of people than is the apple. of my having been in Saigon where rela They are mangos from my in tives of the mango were growing, with Florida." out bringing any of them home. They I was not shocked to discover that he should long ago have formed part of the did not know the mango, for his years of equipment of our mango investigations the closest concentration have been spent in south Florida. We have for almost in a critical examination of the thousands 50 years been planting any old seeds we of species of wild plants which compose could get and grafting them with the flora of the Central and North East mangos, imported sorts or seedlings origi ern States and adjacent Canada. He had nating in our yards, without stopping been associated with the late Professor to consider that all of the varieties had B. L. Robinson in the preparation of flowers with only one feebly developed Gray's New Manual of which stamen, and with systems which was published 40 years ago, and has were rather slow to "take hold" in our been used by perhaps a hundred thou rocky soils and ill-adapted to the muck sand of our American youth; and now soils at our disposal. We had over he is finishing an enlarged new edition. looked the possibilities which may lie in I was once severely criticized by Mr. these Cochin China relatives, possibili Lathrop for not knowing who was the ties that they might cross with our mango golf champion about whom the Wash varieties and give us new hybrids with ington Star was running headlines, so increased vigor and better pollinating how could I expect Fernald to know qualities. Five stamens instead of one, that while he was working on the and a different root system—a better Manual I had been helping to establish stock. a mango industry in southern Florida. We have done just what the citrus "I will try them," he said, and we growers have so generally done, stuck to turned to the subject of my visit; a look one or two stocks, the sour orange or the at the Flora of Cochin China. I thought rough lemon in their case, without ex I remembered just where on the shelf haustively studying the root systems of the volume was which I had seen years the relatives which are scattered over before, but discovered that I could not the globe. recall the author's name. It was not With the idea of encouraging, even until the professor's library assistant ar now after all these years, a field study rived and explained that she had moved of these Cochin China species of the big volumes that we located it: , I set up my Rolliflex and Pierre's Forest Flora of Cochin China.1 photographed the plates of the mango I opened it at the chapter on the relatives. I have the pictures before me and shall try to abstract the important

1 Pierre, L. Director du Jardin Botanique de Saigon. features of these species. Perhaps some Flore Forestiere de la Cochinchine. Ouvrage Publie su les Auspices di Ministere de la Marine et des Colo horticulturist may be encouraged to visit nies. Paris, Octave doin, Editeur, 8 Place de TOdeon. this home of the Mangifera and related 26 fasciles 1879-1907. FAIRCHILD: MANGO RELATIVES 253 genera and get seeds for experiment of Mangifera be made on the spot the ones he deems worthy of bringing where it occurs, they have served a into our experimental collections. purpose. Photostats of these plates are It would hardly be worth while for in Miami University Library. this purpose to repeat the technical It is beyond my power to delve into all descriptions of the species which Engler the various monographs on Mangifera and others gave from their dried speci and put down all that might be useful to mens, especially since in most cases one going out after the seeds for intro they did not have the fruits before them. duction. A mere botanical study of the I shall therefore give the habitats of the various species would hardly get us far more promising species, judging from on our way towards the utilization of Delpy's careful drawings, and put this the mango material out of which new rather detailed information into an ap and perhaps superb and valuable varie pendix. ties could be produced. There are five species of Mangifera I cannot refrain from mentioning in having five distinct, perfect stamens and closing this paper, that in this Flora by sometimes additional staminodia. They Pierre there are pictured a number of constitute the section Euantherae. other fruits which should long ago have Of the second section which he calls been on trial in south Florida. Amba Marchand, none of the flowers Sivintonia pierrei, Hance and have more than a single perfect stamen, hurmanica, Griff might be especially although some have staminodia which mentioned. A good half plate is given approach in size the perfect stamen, but of the former which is called "Soari" by do not produce . With this sec the native Kmers, and shows fruits re tion we are not much concerned here, sembling those of the mango. The Radja although of course there may be species of Soija once showed me an orchard of in it which should be studied. I give in the Bouea in Amboina, where they call the appendix the complete list, with it the "Gandaria." Dr. Ochse, who had their habitats so far as I am able to find pictured it in color in his "Fruits and them in my cursory study of the Flora. Fruit Culture in the Dutch East Indies" The native names are given when avail is very enthusiastic and has pointed out able, and were I where I could study the that there are many varieties of it in literature thoroughly, I might find more West Java. Whether this Bouea burma- data. I am struck with the meager nica is as good in flavor as B. material which seems to have been at macrophylla, I am not in position to the disposal of the various authors, who say. Now that Dr. Ochse and his son-in- had not been able to see the fruits and law, Dr. Dijkmann are connected with were obliged to take hearsay information. the University of Miami and are familiar I am not sure how valuable will be with the fruit, it may not be long before these attempts of mine to point out the we are able to try the various varieties. characters of the various species from a As I turned the pages of Pierre's Flora study of the very crowded lithographic and saw the superb plates, I could not plates by Delpy. If they serve only to but wish that vastly more work had been emphasize how important it would seem done in looking up in Tropical , that a careful, modern study of this plants suitable for introduction into 254 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1948

Florida. We have barely scratched the tinct nerves. His Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 show surface of this work for the fruits that appear to be monoembryonic. No of this region where so many of us have text regarding habitat but doubtless Engler*s chosen to spend our lives. Monograph Phaenerogamorum, Vol. lv, will give this data. Appendix Mangifera lagenifera, Griff. Notal lv 414 t. Section 1. Euantherae. Disc short and 567 f. 3. Hook I.e. 18. Engler I.e. 211. Delpy's thick Stamens 5 to 12 of which 5 to 6 are figures C 3 and 4, Place 365, show a flower fertile, the others reduced to filaments. with very long ; 7 mm. long, nearly twice Mangifera Duperreana. Stamens 10 to 12 of the length of either M. cochinchinensis or which 5 to 6 are fertile. Two millimeters long. M. Duperreana or M. pentandra with four Between each lobe of the disc there is a fila nerves on the inside sometimes reduced to ment without an anther either upright or curved. three. There are 5 fertile stamens and 5 stami- Delpy's figures 14 and 21, Plate 362, A, show nodia reduced to short lanceolate filaments. clearly the fully developed stamens and be The style is longer than the stamens. Fruit tween them the sterile filaments. The fruits pyriform, VA decimeter long, and 3.7 centi were unknown to the author but are said to be meters broad. According to Griffiths the fruit smaller than those of , fibrous is green, smooth, heavy and fetid with secre but succulent. The inhabitants of the island of tions "vernisses" (varnished) black, with flesh Phu Kwok (Phu Quoc), off the coast of Cam very fibrous with an endocarp, ovate lanceolate bodia, use the timber for oars. In the province coriaceous and fibrous. Related to M. cochin of Samrongtong they make boards from the chinensis and M. zeylanica also with M. foetida timber. and M. odorata. The flower disc is hemi Mangifera pentandra, Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. spherical as in M. foetida var. Kawinii. It is II 14, figured by Delpy as F. 3 and 5 of Plate also related to M. superba. Habitat: the pen 36 i as having 5 stamens of more or less equal insula of Malacca from Muong-Pran east coast length, 2 millimeters long, flattened at their to Malacca. (I find Meng Pran in the Times bases. Nearly related to M. Duperreana and Atlas.) Species with 5 stamens: (Stamens 5 M. caloneura, Kurz but with seven distinct to 12 of which 5 to 6 are fertile, the others re nerves on the inside of the petals. Its fruit was duced io filaments). Section I. not described" mais ne murit pas naturallement. Mangifera Dupperreana from Phu Quoc De la son nom malais: "Mam Ploni," accord island (Phu Kwok?) off the coast of ing to Mainguay. No exact locality is given for and the Province of Samrongtong. this species. Description taken from Engler, Mangifera pentandra. No exact locality given Monog. Phanerog. Vol. lv, 198. but the native name is 'Mam Ploni" according Mangifera caloneura, Kurz Fl. Burma 1 305 to Mainguay whose writings should be con Hook. 1. c. p. 14. Engler l.c.p. 200 Petals have sulted. (Plate 364, Fig. F. 5 shows 5 unequally three nerves on inside instead of seven as in developed but perfect stamens and a long M. pentandra. Stamens 5 subequal in length, style.) 2 millimeters long with an aborted stamen the Mangifera caloneura from Pegu to the prov shape of a horn. Fruit 5 to 6 centimeters, yel ince of Petehapury on the Eastern border of low, subacid, slightly kidney-shaped and Siain. (Plate 364, Fig. G 3 & 5, shows 5 short atenuated above. Species generally distributed perfect stamens and strong pistil.) from Pegu to the province of Petehapury on the Mangifera cochinchinensis. No habitat given. eastern border of Siam. Consult Engler's Monograph. Mangifera cochinchinensis, Engler I.e. 205. Mangifera lagenifera, Griff from the penin Delpy's Fig. 4, Plate 362 B, shows 5 well de sula of Malacca, from Muong-Pran on East veloped stamens and his figure "1" a flower Coast to Malacca. (Possibly Meng Pran.) with unusually long petals each with four dis Species with only a single stamen, rarely two FAIRCHILD: MANGO RELATIVES 255 functional, the others aborted. Or lacking flowers with a very small short pistil and only anthers. Always very small when present. Sec 1 short stamen with mature anther and very tion II. small staminodia. , Blume, Bijde. 1158 ? Roxb. on Plate 364, Engler I.e. 210. M. fragrans, Hook. f. 1. c. 181. Fig. B, as having diminutive pistil shorter than Stamens 5 but all of which are provided with the single stamen and with several staminodia. anthers but of which 4 are half length. Fruit Mangifera khasiana on Plate 364 Fig. C, according to Maingay 1 decimeter long; accord- shows flower with long petals and 1 long pistil, inge to Blume the size of a child's head. Habitat longer than the single stamen, apparently "la Malaisie, \e Cambodge et la peninsule monoembry onic. malaise." , Blanco. On Plate 364, Mangifera longipes, Griff. Delpy pictures Fig. 5, is shown an extremely small flower with the flower as having a long in Plate very short petals and a pistil with style very 365, A. short and robust and curved towards the single , Griff. Delpy's drawing short stamen; staminodia sessile and with no shows only 1 stamen but long petals, Plate signs of filaments. 365, B. Mangifera quadrifida, Jack, has, according to Mangifera siiperba, Hook. Delpy's figure D, Plate 364, Fig. H. 3, 4,* 5, very small flower plate 365, shows the flower with very long with stunted pistil, style curved towards the petals and the fruit perched on a very long single stamen and staminodia short without pedicel. Related to M. laginifera and probably partially developed filaments. having the same general habitat. Mangifera ohlongifolia, Hook. f. Plate 364, Lour. var. Kawinii, 1, 3 and 5, show flower with long petals, long Blume. Delpy shows the flower on a short robust pistil with staminodia having partly de pedicel and the small petals with 3 pronged veloped anthers. inner markings. Plate 365, Fig. E. Two other , Hook. f. Plate 364, varieties of this species are shown; F. fig. with Fig. 3 and 6, show flower with long petals re- very long reflexed petals as variety Cochinchi- flexed, a tall disc and one well-developed nensis. This has 5 well-developed stamens 4 stamen, several sterile filaments. of which may not be functional. Fig. G. shows Mangifera griffithii, Hook. f. Plate 364, variety Blumei with short stamens only 1 of Fig. K, 3 and 4, show very short pistil and very the 5 being perfectly developed. short stamen, the pistil curved over the stamen Mangifera indica L. var. Compressa, Blume. and the disc strongly developed. Petals short Delpy's Fig. "a" plate 361 small figure 6 shows and flower small. a very short pistil, 1 perfect stamen and various Mangifera microphylla, Griff. Plate 364 L 3 lengthed staminodia and a multiembryonic and 5 show pistil with long style and single seed. well developed stamen and several small Mangifera indica var. Cambodiana. Delpy staminodia. shows Plate 361, Fig. B, sessile flowers with , Jack. Plate 364 M 3 and short petals and a single stamen with various 4 and 5 show very long petals and long style aborted staminoids, an obliquely set pistil with and rather obscurely, short staminodia at the long style and a polyembryonic seed. Data re base of longish disc. In unusual length of garding the habitat of both these varieties I petals approaches M. kemanga, Blume. have not secured. Presumably they are native Mangifera kemanga, Blume, Plate 364, Fig. of Cambodia. N 4, 6, 10, depicts flower with unusually long Mangifera lamina, Blume, is figured in Plate slender petals and pistil with style five times as 364, Figs. A, 3 and 5, as having small sessile long as the diameter of the basal .

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