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176 FRUITS IN THEIB SEASON.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. Vii. King Pikje Apphe. "The King* Neve...
except the timber trees which , overshadow it , and forming an almost impenetrable thicketobstructing the _traveller's progress in
, every direction . Yet the fruit it matures , even in this savage stateisin a climate so suited to itequally delicious with that
which , may , have been reared in England , at royal cost , under the ¦ watchful care of the most scientific gardener . In Surinam , says
Stedman , Ananas grow spontaneously in such plenty that they arecommon food for hogs ; a regale sufficientone might imagine ,
, almost to reverse the charm of Circe , and endow these privileged porkers with a super-porcine nature . At Trinidad they are said to *
attain the largest size , and at Burmah their greatest excellence ; the British army , who found them growing wild in the woods in
the latter country , having passed this encomium upon them , but they have never been brought thence to England . That high
authority Humboldt , however , pronounced in favor of quite another locality , for after mentioning that there are certain spots in
America , as in Europe , where different fruits attain their highest perfection , and indicating what various _j ) laces are famed for , he proceeds
to add decisively , that " the pine apple should be eaten at Esmeralda [ in Guiana ] or in the Isle of Cuba , " where , growing in parallel
rows like agricultural crops , they are " the ornament of the fields . " There is hope then still for the " used up . " When all else hath
palled by repetition ; when steaks beside the very gridiron shall be insipid , and whitebait be flavorless even at Blackwall ; when not
even the nearest murmur of the stream -whence it was drawn can ive savor to Scotland ' s troutand the effulgence of Italy ' s sunshine
fail g s to gild Neapolitan maccaroni , with a relish ; even then the world holds still one charm untried , and it cannot be said that all
life ' s pleasures are exhausted while a voyage to Cuba may secure , in the fragrant bowers of the " lone star of the sea ., " the yet
unknown felicity of tasting a perfect pine ! Should dull imagination be able but faintly to conceive the bliss ,
it may be aided by that _unsurpassable description of one of our early voyagerswhich caused poor Evelyn such woeful
disappointmentwhen not , even the touch of royal fingers could impart to the , morsel vouchsafed him of a long-kept sea-spoiled import more than .
the mere _g-host of a flavor thus glowingly depicted . An old writer had already observed that the Ananas was " a fruit of such
excellence that the gods might luxuriate upon it , and which should only be gathered by the hand of a Venus ; " but this is mere vague
panegyric . The worthy Captain Ligon tries to tell in what this excellence consists , and not quite in vain , for surely if words can
convey the idea of a taste these do so . " _IsTow , " says he , "to close up all that can be said of fruitsI must name the pine , for in that
single name all that is excellent , in a superlative degree for beauty and taste is totalland summarily included . When it comes to be
y eaten , nothing of rare taste can be thought on that is not there , nor
is it imaginable that so full a harmony ' of tastes can be raised out
176 Fruits In Theib Season.
176 FRUITS IN THEIB SEASON .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 176, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/32/
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