Mangifera foetida, Mangifera indica, Mangifera sylvatica.

Mangifera foetida Lour. Anacardiaceae. Horse Mango.

A tree of the Malayan Archipelago. The horse mango is cultivated by the Burmese, who esteem the fleshy, strong-scented fruit. Don says it is unwholesome but is eaten by the Malays.

Mangifera indica Linn. Mango.

Tropical eastern Asia. The mango grows abundantly in India, where many varieties are cultivated, and the fruit of some is esteemed as most delicious. In north and central India, says Brandis, the fruit of ungrafted trees is generally stringy with a strong, turpentine flavor. It, nevertheless, forms an important article of food for large classes of the population. The fruit of good grafts is excellent, soft, juicy and with a delicious, aromatic flavor. In Burma, the mango is not generally grafted, for seeds of a good kind, as a rule produce good fruit of a similar description. This seems to be the fruit seen by Friar Jordanus, about 1300, who calls it aniba. The mango was introduced to Jamaica in 1782. In 1880, 21 fruitful and superior varieties were growing at the Botanical Gardens in Trinidad. At Cayenne, it did not exist before the beginning of the present century. Its introduction into Brazil was more ancient as the seeds came thence to Barbados in the middle of the eighteenth century. In Martinique, by grafting, a dozen very distinct varieties have been established, the quality of which, says Berlanger, in respect to the abundance and flavor of the flesh, places them in the first rank of tropical fruits. In the Mauritius, they cultivate a number of varieties. This tree has been introduced into Florida and is now grown there to a limited extent. In Jamaica, starch is made of the unripe fruit. In India, the unripe fruit is much used in conserves, tarts and pickles, and the kernels of the seeds are boiled and eaten in times of scarcity.

Mangifera sylvatica Roxb.

Himalayan region. The yellow fruit is eaten by the natives, although inferior to the worst kinds of the common mango.


Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.