l, become more perfect in their
kind, as larger, fairer, sweeter, and more fruitful; while others are
improved by a worse soil and colder region. This diversity may not only
be seen in plants and herbs, but also in beasts, and even in man. It is
strange to observe how very differently some trees bear their fruits
and seeds, some in one part of the tree and some in other parts. At
Calicut there is a fruit named _Jaceros_, which grows on a tree about
the size of our pear trees. The fruit is about two spans and a half
long, and as thick as the thigh of a man, growing out of the body of the
tree under the branches, some in the middle of the tree and others lower
down. The colour of this fruit is green, and its form and appearance
resembles a pine apple, but with smaller grains or knobs. When ripe it
is black, and is gathered in December. It has the taste of a _pepon_
with a flavour of musk, and in eating seems to give various pleasant
tastes, sometimes resembling a peach, sometimes like a pomegranate, and
leaves a rich sweet in the month like new honeycombs. Under the skin it
has a pulp like that of a peach, and within that are other fruits like
soft chesnuts, which when roasted eat much like them. This is certainly
one of the finest fruits I ever met with. There is another fruit called
_Apolanda_, which is worthy of being mentioned. The tree grows to the
height of a man, having not above four or five leaves hanging from
certain slips, each leaf being so large that it is sufficient to cover a
man entirely from rain or the heat of the sun. In the middle of each
leaf rises a stalk like that of a bean, which produces flowers followed
by fruit a span long, and as thick as a mans arm. These fruits are
gathered unripe, as they become ripe in keeping. Every slip bears about
two hundred fruits in a cluster. They are of a yellow colour with a very
thin skin, and are most delicate eating, and very wholesome. There are
three kinds of this fruit, one of which is not so pleasant or so much
esteemed as the others. This tree bears fruit only once and then dies;
but there rise from the ground all about the root fifty or sixty young
slips which renew the life of the parent tree. The gardeners transplant
these to other places, and in one year they produce fruit This fruit is
to be had in great abundance, almost the whole year, and are so cheap
that twenty of them may be had for a penny. This country produces
innumerable flowers of great beauty