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Show mcion i iami or Ancients. Bfelons were first extensively cultl voted In Franco early In tho seventeenth seven-teenth century, but were known to the ancients from tho commencement ol our era. Tho Egyptians grew them, They are snld to havo been carried tc America by Columbus, and to tho Malay Ma-lay archipelago by tho Portuguese. No other fruit Is so vnrinblo In follngo nnd habit, or undergoes mo many metamorphoses metamor-phoses by crossing its varieties, all ol which nro fertile. They nro grown ex-tenslvely ex-tenslvely In Asln, but llttlo enre Is bo-stowed bo-stowed on their cultivation, and thoy consequently never Improve. They grow on sandhnnks left dry by tho fall-Ing fall-Ing rivers; If near n town a portion of tho crop can be sold, but most of it is yaluoloss. as It rots If taken nny dls-tanco dls-tanco by cart or boot. |