Show THE BRAZILIAN CAJIT II A Dilicious Tropical Fruit with Peculiar Characteristics I have often wondered remarked remark-ed a gentleman wbO recently returned from Brazil f why importers of tropical tropi-cal fruit never made au effort to introduce the delightfully cool and refreshing caju of Brazil in this city The oaju grows wild land 13 cultivated in that country The caju trse hardly hard-ly rises to the dignity of a tree but its branches are wide spreading and its leaves larger than those of the rubber tree of a brilliant green color and oval shape and shine as if they were varnished The bloom is on the extremities of the branches and is a small pale yellow flower growing grow-ing in clusters Oue variety of the garden caju when ripe is as large as a Bartlett pear and shaped something like it Some varieties are bright yellow some deep red and others yellow with pink colored oDeeks 1 he flesh or pulp of the osju is more tempting in appearance than that of any fruit I ever saw but it is never eaten It is for the juice alone that the caju is prized In this it is much more prolific pro-lific than the juciet orange It is the custom of the Brazilians to Buck a caju before breakfast but at any hour of the day the juice is delightful delight-ful It is sweet and delicious slightly slight-ly astringent and a wonderful allayer of thirst Tut juioe of one caju is more grateful to a thirsty person than a goblet of the purest water The wild caju which grows profusely pro-fusely in the forests is small and acrid and is gathered by the natives for wine making The wine made from it resembles in taste an ordinary claret sweetened with einar and is a popular beverage among the poorer people A peculiarity of the caju is its seed whica grows on the outside i of the fruit and hangs from its larger extremity The seed is in size and appearance like a large kidney bean The kernel is surrounded by a pulpy covering which secretes a powerful acid Whenever this touches the flesh a painful blister will form at nee similar to that made by dropping I drop-ping burning particles of a parlor match on the hand By roasting the kernals however this trouble some property of the seed is destroyed destroy-ed The roasted kernels of caju seed are as popular in Borne parts of Brazil as peanuts are here and taste very much like them In roasting the kernels great care is exercised in preventing the smoke that rises from them from touching any part of the flesh for wherever it touches a moat irritating inflammation 13 the imme diate result If tbe smoke enters the eyes it will destroythe eight The Cftju has almost as many varies vari-es as the American pear and it would certainly become a popular fruit if introduced here New York Sun I |