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But most of the seedlings so abundant throughout the tropics
do not represent this fruit at its best. While of good flavour,
they are commonly characterised by coarse fibres throughout the
flesh which makes eating an annoying process. In contrast, the fine
grafted varieties which have originated in India and a few other
regions, as well as seedlings of the race cultivated in the Philippines
and a few other gloms (known in Mexico as Mangos de Manila in Mexico
and Filipinos in Cuba) are almost devoid of fibre and of excellent
quality.

In 1889 the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced into
Florida the first of the grafted Indian varieties (known in
this country, the variety Mulgoba, of superb quality but not highly
productive. In subsequent years, mainly through the efforts of
Reasoner Brothers and David Fairchild, more than fifty other choice
varieties were brought to the U.S., whence the cultivation of
several gradually spread to many parts of the American tropics. The
British and French also introduced a number into the West Indies.
Some of the best imported varieties are Fairi (known in Jamaica
as Bombay), Borsha, and Amini. In addition to these such varieties
as Carabao from the Philippines and Saigon from Cambodia should be
mentioned, as well as Julie which first received horticultural
attention in the French West Indies and is now popular in Jamaica.

Due to the failure of many varieties to produce regular and
heavy crops of fruit, they have been replaced in commercial orchards
by Haden (a seedling of Mulgoba which originated in Florida) and
others which have been developed in that state.

Mango trees are injured by a few degrees of frost. They are
successfully grown commercially in southern Florida, but have not
been wholly successful in California, though numerous trees have
fruited in that state. The mango is not particular as to soil, but
the finer varieties only produce good crops where there is a well-
marked dry season to stimulate fruit production rather than vegetative growth. There is another serious problem in rainy areas:
a fungous disease known as anthracnose (Colletotrichum) which
destroys the flowers and young fruits and is expensive to control.

Propagation is by means of grafting or budding. Inarching is
widely practiced in tropical Asia, but is tedious and relatively
expensive. In Florida better methods have been developed and are used
commercially. Chief among these are veneer grafting and chip budding.
However, seedling trees of the Philippine race usually produce fruit
like that of the parent and for this reason are extensively grown
in Mexico. This race is polyembryonic, which means that trees
usually do not develop from fertilized ovules, but from what are
known as nucellar buds arising from the vegetative tissues surrounding
the egg cell, hence they are in most respects similar to grafted
plants. On the other hand, most of the Indian varieties are
monoembryonic, which means that young plants develop only from
fertilized ovules and therefore are subject to the variation which
is characteristic of cultivated fruit trees in general.