KUMQUAT

or Cumquat, a very small, orange-style fruit of China and Japan now under general cultivation—especially, in this country, along the Gulf of Mexico. The fruit is commonly oblong (round in some varieties) and the size of a small plum (see the color-page opposite 290). The rind is sweet and aromatic, and the pulp acid. The entire fruit, rind and all, is eaten by many people. It also serves, quartered or sliced, as an excellent and ornamental addition to fruit and nut salads, and is good candied or otherwise preserved whole, and as jelly and marmalade. The tree was first grown here as an ornament—for the attractive contrast of its dark-green leaves and its small, orange-gold fruits. It attains naturally to a height of ten to fifteen feet, but in China and Japan many are potted and dwarfed to two or three feet. At state dinners in those countries and occasionally at fashionable banquets here and in Europe, the little trees are placed before the guests that they may pluck the fruits direct from the branches. The Encyclopedia of Food — L **L**