Tropical and subtropical fruit growing.
Calabrese F.
pl.
: 498 pp.
Abstract : The need for an up-to-date book on tropical and subtropical fruits in Italian prompted the author to produce this comprehensive publication. It is arranged in 4 parts, as follows: 1. Herbaceous plants (pineapple, banana, pawpaw and passion fruit), 2. Fruit trees with fleshy fruit (breadfruit, annonas, avocado, sapodilla, jackfruit, persimmon, litchi, mango and loquat), 3. Fruit trees with dry fruit (cashew, macadamia, Brazil nut and pecan), and 4. Other fruit trees (including such species as durian and Monstera deliciosa). Under each major species, details are provided on origin and history, botany, cultivars, ecology, propagation, planting and culture, flowering and fruiting, and pests and diseases. There are many black-and-white photographs (including one of a pawpaw fruiting in a greenhouse in Sicily) and the author mentions, in his introduction, some of the species which can be grown in southern Italy covered by the book, such as avocado, loquat, pecan, litchi and cherimoya. The references listed at the end of each section are, however, drawn from the world literature. It is a most useful reference book. D. O.'D. Bourke