Citrus fruits of gigantic proportions

1929

When descending from the mountains we went to Kagi, ^[1] to a tropical research station where all that is valuable in the worldwide flora is collected and where they make stubborn ^[2] attempts to introduce especially valuable plants and fruits into cultivation for technical purposes. Here are plantations of rubber trees, mango trees and mangosteen, and original collections of tropical citrus fruits of gigantic proportions, the size of a human head. ^[3] Selections of sweet potatoes have been introduced. A handful of seeds, presented to me, served as basic material for breeding a number of valuable kinds of sweet potatoes at the experimental station at Sukhumi [on the Black Sea coast]. …

The market and the vegetable gardens of Kagi are an introduction to the realm of vegetables from China. There are peculiar species and varieties still not studied. Together with Tanaka I collected hundreds of medicinal plants in the rows of “physician’s” stalls in the market of the city of Tainan. ^[4] All the Chinese remedies against all kinds of illnesses and for all ages and sexes were found here.

1. The Japanese name for Chiayi. [↩]
2. Why “stubborn”? Did the attempts fail, or were the local growers resistant? [↩]
3. Probably the pomelo, Citrus maxima, one of the parents of the grapefruit. [↩]
4. About 60 km southwest of Chaiyi. [↩]

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