MANGO, mango, a genus of trees (Max gifera) of the family Anacardiaceer. The 30 species are natives of southeastern A.4a. where some of them have been distributed by man throughout the tropics of bad hemispheres. The wood of various species is used for boat and canoe making, house building and for boxes. It is gal, rather soft and easily worked. The tree are valued also for shade, being of large size and attractive form, and very leafy, the leaves large, leathery and evergreen. It is for their fruits, however, that they are most es teemed. These are widely used for human food, especially in the East, either ripe, in which con dition they are eaten raw, with or without wine, sugar and spices, or unripe as preserves, jellies or pickles. They are also used for making wine and glucose. The finer varieties are considered equal to the choicest pineapples and even to the mangosteen.
The most commonly planted and most widely distributed species is the common mango (Al. indica), a native of India. It often exceeds 40 feet in height, bears terminal panicles of rather small pinkish or yellow flowers, followed by smooth kidney-shaped yellow or reddish fruits which often weigh more than half a pound. Each fruit contains one large flattened seed, almost as long and often nearly as wide as the fruit, but flattened like the seed of a melon. The kernel is often roasted and eaten like chest nuts. The pulp of the fruit is soft, luscious in the finer varieties but very fibrous in the in ferior sorts. These have a more or less pro nounced flavor, suggestive of turpentine, which is characteristic of all parts of the tree. Since 1782, when the mango was introduced into Jamaica with a lot of other plants taken from a French vessel captured on its way to Haiti, the fruit has spread throughout the West Indies and southern Florida. In Florida, however, the
freeze of 1886 destroyed all trees except those in the extreme southern part, where the mango is now confined. The market, which seems to be growing but is somewhat limited because of the prevailing ignorance regarding the fruit, is supplied mainly from the West Indies. Califor nia supplies little more than its home markets. The trees do best upon well-drained sandy land, and should he well supplied with potassic manures. They quickly fail to bear upon wet soils. They may be propagated by grafting, but since a large proportion of the varieties repro duce practically without change by seed this method is widely employed.
Several other species of mangoes are culti vated. For instance, the horse mango (M. fatida), a native of Malacca, is cultivated in In dia, and M. sylvatica, whose fruits are dried and used like prunes.
Several birds are called mango-birds in various parts of the world be cause they frequent mango-trees. The East In dian one is an oriole (Oriolus kundoo); the West Indian one, so called in Jamaica, is a hum ming-bird (Lampornis violacauda), which may occasionally visit Florida.
one of the threadfins a small perch-like sea-fish (Polynemus plebi jus) which is numerous along Oriental coasts, and approaches the shore and is caught at the time when mangoes ripen. The same name is sometimes given to a relative in the West In dies (Polydactylus virglnicus), called barbudo in the Cuban markets.