60 : ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Anonacee. 
been planted there, as well as the palms and other plants of the. southern provinces 
growing with it to the very water's edge. 
Anona squamosa affording a delicious fruit, and belonging to a genus of which all the 
species, except A. Senegalensis, are confined to America, has been so completely natu- 
ralized in India, as to. appear indigenous, particularly as it has. several native names 
applied to it. Of these, shurifa is evidently of Persian origin ; but Gunda gutra is 
Sanscrit ; and as it is well known that there are few remarkable Indian trees without a 
Sanscrit name, it has been. inferred that every plant with a Sanscrit name must be 
of Indian origin. In this difficulty I requested the opinion of Professor Wilson on the 
antiquity of the Sanscrit name applied to the custard-apple. He has been good enough 
to inform me, that ‘‘ it does not follow, because a plant has a Sanscrit name, that it is 
therefore indigenous to India, or of remote introduction ; for tobacco has a Sanscrit 
name, tamrakuta, and its history is known.” The name, Ganda gatra, applied to Anona 
squamosa, by Dr, Carey, in the Hortus Bengalensis, is inserted in Professor Wilson’s 
Sanscrit Dictionary, he informs me, on the authority of the Sabda Chandrika, a com- 
paratively modern compilation ; and further, that the common term for the other species 
(A. reticulata) common in India, is no doubt derived from Anona, as it is called either 
nona or lona, which in Sanscrit is made Lavuni. There is little doubt, therefore, that 
the custard-apple is one of the fruits for which India is indebted to America, The only 
place where I have seen it growing apparently wild, is on the sides of the mountain on 
which the hill-fort of Adjeegurh in Bundlecund is built, and this it covers in company 
with the teak-tree, which attains only a dwarfish size. The other species which 
have been ascribed to Asia, are A. Farskolii and A. Asiatica ; the former, accord- 
ing to Dunal, a variety of the latter, which, according to Mr. Brown, is only Anona 
muricata. 
Three species of Anona having been perfectly naturalized in India, and A. cherimolia, 
so much lauded by Humboldt, flourishing in the Botanic Gardens, both of Calcutta and 
Saharunpore, there is no doubt that other species, such as A. palustris and sylvatica, 
might also be introduced into India ; to these might also be added, Monodora myristica, 
or American nutmeg, as it is called; as well as Aylopia sericea, which bears a fruit 
with the flavour of pepper, and has a bark from which cordage may be prepared. 
Besides the pleasant-tasted fruit, for which the section with concrete carpella is best 
known, others of this family are remarkable for possessing a bark with acrid and aro- 
matic properties, participated in by their distinct carpella ; hence both have been used 
in India and America in medicine, and the fruit of Uvaria Jebrifuga, according to Hum- 
boldt, as a cure for fevers, From their aromatic properties, the seed of some have been 
used as condiments; thus, the dry fruits of Unona aromatica are said, by Professor 
Lindley, to be the Piper Lthiopicum of the shops. Unona AEthiopica, an African plant, 
most likely, afforded the old Piper Athiopicum, probably the Filfil-ool-Soudan, Soudan 
pepper, described by Persian authors. It is not generally known that the leaves of 
Anona squamosa have a heavy disagreeable odour, and the seeds contain a highly acrid 
principle 
