* any of the recorded species of Guava. The excellent 
* flavour of its fruit, which is very like that of strawber- 
* ries and cream, is far superior to either P. pyriferum, po- 
* miferum, or polycarpon." 
Mr. Sabine describes the fruit (the common size of 
which is seen in the annexed plate) as having a skin much 
of the consistence of that of a ripe fig, but thinner; the 
interior a soft fleshy pulp, reddish purple next the skin, 
but becoming paler towards the middle, and at the centre 
quite white. He adds, that it is juicy, of a consistence 
much like that of a strawberry, to which it bears some re- 
semblance in flavour; and though he does not think it 
equal in quality, it may however, he says, be liked by some 
people, being sweet with an agreeable acid. 
“ Tree small, leafy, branching, compact; branches round: 
leaves petioled, obovate, coriaceous, quite smooth, dark 
green; veins conspicuous in the young leaf, are nearly ob- 
solete in the old. lowers solitary, axillary. Calyx (before 
expansion) 5-toothed, thick, pearshaped; (after expansion) 
torn into 5 segments, beset with stamens over the whole 
interior surface to even with the top of the germen: petals 
9, borne between the calycine segments, with scarcely any 
unguis, caducous. ‘Stamens (unexpanded) bent inwards: 
anthers oblong, balancing, notched at both ends, with de- 
tached cells. Germen 3-celled; cells two-parted, with a 
receptacle of the seed resembling a partition, and forked 
at the edge and reflexed at both sides: ovules indefinitely nu- 
merous, in twe rows, from the receptacle being reflexed 
turned towards the axis of the fruit. Style filiform. Stigma 
headed. Berry nearly round, the size of a small Pear, 
claret-coloured, with a thin finely pitted rind, crowned with 
the 5 permanent segments of the calyx, filled with a tender 
pale pulpy aigredoux flesh, in which the traces of the re- 
ceptacle are discoverable by the greater firmness of the 
veins." 
The well-known Guava Jelly is the produce of a species 
belonging to this genus, which is properly West Indian. 
The present figure was drawn from a plant in Mr. Cat- 
leys Conservatory at Barnet. 
