The Institutes of Akbar 59.1.3

59.1.3

The kernels of old stones are subacid, and taste well: when two or three years old, they are used as medicine. If a half ripe mangoe, together with its stalk to a length of about two fingers, be taken from the tree, and the broken end of its stalk be closed with warm wax, and kept in butter, or honey, the fruit will retain its taste for two or three months, whilst the colour will remain even for a year. Pineapples are also called Kat’hal i Safarí, or the jackfruits for travels, because young plants, put into a vessel, may be taken on travels, and will yield fruits. In colour and shape they resemble an oblong orange; and in taste and smell, a mangoe. The plant is about a yard long, and its leaves have the shape of a hand. The edges of the leaves are like a saw. The fruit forms at the end of the stalk, and has a few leaves on its top. When the fruit is plucked, they cut out these leaves, separate them, and put them singly into the ground: they are the seedlings. Each plant bears only once, and one fruit only. Oranges have the colour of saffron, and the shape of quinces. They belong to the best fruits to be had in Hindústán. The tree resembles the lime tree; its flower has a weak, but fine smell.