front of the Quinta do Valle, in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of Funchal. Other smaller and younger trees occur 
also in several gardens under the name of Star-Apple, 
agreeing in every particular with this. 
The fruit is insipid, yet not absolutely disagreeable ; be- 
ing tolerably juicy and sweet, with something of an astrin- 
gent, fig-like flavour. It is, however, by no means good 
enough to render the tree worth cultivation apart from 
other motives. 
The flowers appear before the fruit is quite over in Au- 
gust, and continue in succession till the following March. 
The fruit, which is always produced in great abundance, 
ripens in the succeeding July and August; but is deservedly 
held in very low esteem in Madeira. 
This species of Star-Apple, which was introduced to the 
conservatories of Britain in 1812, forms, in Madeira, a rather 
elegant evergreen tree, about thirty feet high, with a trunk 
not exceeding a foot in diameter, covered with a cracked _ 
and roughish, but otherwise pretty even or equal ash-~ 
coloured bark. The head is thick, close, and bushy in the 
middle, but not of a regular formal shape; and the outer 
branches, projecting into the air with a certain fan-shaped 
regularity, have a very light and elegant appearance, when 
seen from beneath, in relief against the sky. The general 
aspect and shape of the whole somewhat resembles a fine 
young, vigorous Hawthorn tree. Terminal or young leaf- 
bearing branchlets growing out in a regular, flattened, 
horizontal, fan-like form ; as if they had been regularly 
trained against a wall : densely clothed with a coat of ferru- 
ginous adpressed hairs, which easily rub off, and ultimately 
disappear. Young leaves clothed on both sides with simi- 
Jar hairs, which disappear from the upper surface in a short 
time. Petioles short, about half an inch long, densely fer- 
rugineo-pubescent. All parts of the tree while young are 
milky when cut or broken. Leaves alternate, oval, ap- 
proaching to oblong, four or five inches long, and two 
broad ; shortly acuminate, sometimes retuse, entire, with 
simple, parallel, equidistant, inconspicuous nerves ; above, 
when adult, smooth and shining ; beneath beautifully sat- 
tiny, with pale, ferruginous, close-pressed, silky hairs ; the 
midrib and nerves deeper ferruginous than the rest. Before 
they fall, the leaves turn to a beautiful deep, rich red, vari- 
ously marbled or mottled with yellow or white. Pedicels 
axillary, all along, and at the ends of the branchlets, and 
even coming out here and there on the older, thicker 
branches ; aggregated, very irregular in number, shorter 
than 
