Yet there are exceptions to the rule, and among others the Peruvian Chirimoya (_Anona tripetala_) is vaunted by travellers in such terms of admiration that it can hardly be inferior to and probably surpasses, the most exquisite fruits of European growth. Hänke calls it, in one of his letters, a masterpiece of Nature, and Tschudi says that its taste is quite incomparable. It grows to perfection at Huanuco, where it attains a weight of from fourteen to sixteen pounds. The fruit is generally heart-shaped, with the broad base attached to the branch. The rind is green, covered with small tubercles and scales, and encloses a snow-white, juicy pulp, with many black kernels. Both the fruit and the blossoms exhale a delightful odour. The tree is about twenty feet high, and has a broad dull green crown. In the eastern hemisphere, the litchi, the mangosteen, and the mango enjoy the highest reputation. The Litchi (_Nephelium Litchi_), a small insignificant tree, with lanceolate leaves, and small greenish-white flowers, is a native of China and Cochin-China, but its cultivation has spread over the East and the West Indies. The plum-like scarlet fruit is generally eaten by the Chinese to their tea, but it is also dried in ovens and exported. In order to obtain the fruit in perfection, for the use of the Imperial Court, the trees, as soon as they blossom, are conveyed from Canton to Pekin on rafts, at a very great trouble and expense, so that the plums may just be ripe on their arrival in the northern capital. The beautiful Mangosteen (_Garcinia Mangostana_), a native of the Moluccas, and thence transplanted to Java, Siam, the Philippines, and Ceylon, resembles at a distance the citron-tree, and bears large flowers like roses. The dark brown capsular fruit, about the size of a small apple, is described as of unequalled flavour--juicy and aromatic, like a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, grapes, and oranges. It is said that the patient who has lost an appetite for everything else still relishes the mangosteen, and that the case is perfectly hopeless when he refuses even this. The stately Mango (_Mangifera indica_) bears beautiful girandoles of flowers, followed by large plum-like fruits, of which, however, but four or five ripen on each branch. More than forty varieties are grown at Kew, the finest of which are reserved for the Queen’s table. From Ceylon, its original seat, the mango has been transplanted far and wide over the torrid zone. [Illustration: MANGOSTEEN.] [Illustration: THE SUGAR CANE.] CHAPTER XV. SUGAR, COFFEE, CACAO, COCA. Progress of the Sugar Cane throughout the Tropical Zone--The Tahitian Sugar Cane--The enemies of the Sugar Cane--The Sugar-harvest--The Coffee Tree--Its cultivation and enemies--The Cacao Tree and the Vanilla--The Coca Plant--Wonderful strengthening Effects of Coca, and fatal consequences of its Abuse.