Renaissance Art - Canestra di frutta

Basket of Fruit ( Italian: Canestra di frutta) (c.1599) is a still life oil painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), which hangs in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Ambrosian Library), Milan.

It shows a wicker basket perched on the edge of a ledge. The basket contains a selection of summer fruit.

Caravaggio's Fruit: A Mirror on Baroque Horticulture

Jules Janick

Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Purdue University, West Lafayette Indiana 479076-2010

“ The uppermost fruit is a good-sized, light-red peach¹  (Prunus persica) attached to a stem with wormholes in the leafⁱ resembling damage by oriental fruit moth (Orthosia hibisci).

Beneath it is a single bicolored apple² (Malus pumila), shown from a stem perspective with two insect entry holes, probably codling moth, one of which shows secondary rot at the edge;

one blushed yellow pear³ with insect predations resembling damage by leaf roller (Archips argyospita);

four figs (Ficus carica), two white^4a and two purple^4b—the purple ones dead ripe and splitting along the sides, plus a large fig leaf with a prominent fungal scorch lesion resembling anthracnose (Glomerella cingulata);

and a single unblemished quince⁵ (Cydonia oblonga) with a leafy spur showing fungal spotsⁱⁱ.

There are four clusters of grapes (Vitis vinifera), black^6a, red^6b, golden^6c, and white^6d; the red cluster on the right shows several mummied fruit, while the two clusters on the left each show an overripe berry. There are two grape leaves, one severely desiccated and shriveledⁱⁱⁱ while the other contains spots^iv and evidence of an egg mass. “

Plantation's Manager Bungalow - Hatter's Castle 1923 Carey Island

Carey island was named after Edward Valentine John Carey, an Englishman planter whom  acquired the island from the Sultan Alaedin Sulaiman Shah to start a rubber plantation.   Carey began the plantation under Jugra Land Ltd and Carey Ltd.  The Island was divided into four estates : North, South, West and East. 

There are seven managers’ and engineers’ bungalow on Carey Island.   Hatter’s  Castle was built in 1923 by engineer C.L.Gjorup for himself to live in, with a flat at the top for the General Manager,  Mr James French when he visited. 

All the timber for constructing Hatter’s Castle was cut from the estate as they cleared the jungle, bricks were backed locally, and the furniture was made locally by Chinese craftsmen.  There was a water storage system which collects rain water off the roofs and piping it into sealed underground tanks.

The name of the bungalow was inspired by A.J.Cronin’s novel of the same name.   The ‘Hat’ was the domed roof over the first floor terrace which was removed in the 1950s because the wooden structure was decaying.

Gjorup also built the Club House and the bunds and water gates.  In addition,  Gjorup also built two other estate bungalow in similar style at Sogomana in Perak and Telok Merbau Estate in Selangor

Citrus Scab

Pathogen :

[ fungus ] Elsinoe fawcettii

Symptoms :

Leaf & fruit –  young foliar lesions superficially resemble young citrus canker, may have a slight water soaked margin.  

As pustules develop, the small elevated pink spots become more defined and may form conical depressions nearby.  

When pustules mature, they become warty and crack.  

Scab pustules colour may progress to yellowish brown and eventually to a dirty grey.

Prevention and Control :

Citrus scab can be controlled using resistant cultivars, and by fungicide application.