lands of the Sun?




FRAGRANCE AND FRUIT



"The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise."--Holy Writ.

While the remnant of the crop of citrus fruits still hangs on the trees,
after providing refreshing food for six months and more, the blooms which
promise next year's supplies decorate the branches. Is it not pleasing to
have such graceful promises before the burden of the passing season has
disposed of all its sweetness? Possibly these early flowers are destined
to produce fruit for the admiration of living things upon which the
gardener bestows anything but a welcome. It may come to maturity just
after the wet season, when flies and moths feast and corrupt in riot
which provokes to wrath. Inconsequent feeders, they probe the fruit and
flit away after a sip which does not absorb a thousandth part of its keen
juices, or they use a comely specimen in which to deposit eggs, which in
the course of Nature become grubs. All such infected fruit the trees
abandon until the ground is strewn with waste. Such disaster happens when
the air is favourable to the breeding of quivering gauze wings; but there
comes a time when the fruit suffers little or no ill, and then the heart
of the orchardist rejoices as does that of the fisher when the wind comes
up from the sea. Then does he accept fine promises in good faith, for it