202 HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. star 



STAR APPLE. CHRYSOPHYLI.UM. 



Cl. 5, or. 1. Pentandria monogynia. Nat. OK. Dumosa* 

 Ges. char. See Damson Plum, v. 1, p. 259. 



CAINITO. 



Anona, foliis suBtiisJierrugineis, fructu rotundo major", Itsvi, purpu- 

 rea, seviinc nigra, partim rugoso, partim glabra, bloane, v. 2, p. 

 170, t. 229. Fructu mojori globosa, foliis subtus ferrugineis. 

 Browne, p. 171, t. 14, f. 2. 



Leaves ovate, striated in parallel lines, tomentose, and shining underneath. 

 This tree is cultivated, and grows wild, in most parts of Jamaica, it rises from thirty 

 to forty feet high with a strong stem, covered with brown bark, and divides into many 

 flexible, slender, branches, which generally hang downward, garnished with ovate 

 acuminate, alternate, leaves, on inch long pedicels, about five inches long and two broad 

 in the middle, whose under sides are of a bright russet colour, aud silky appearance; 

 their upper surface is of a dark shining green colour. The flowers are axillary and la- 

 teral, in small clusters, of a purplish white colour ; many of them have six segments 

 in the calyx and corolla, and six stamens, most of them however have only five. It is 

 said the fruit never drops of itself but withers on the tree, if not plucked. 



Some trees bear fruit with a purple, and some with a white, skin and pulp, which, 

 when soft, is like jelly, with milky veins, of a sweet and pleasant Liste. The seeds are 

 shining black, of a rhomboidal figure, having a slit on one of their edges. 



This tree grows from the seeds, and thrives with little care. Like the achras', (to 

 whom both the fruit, seeds, and other particulars, seem to slunv it nearly allied) it is 

 lull of milk, and the fruit retains it even in the most perfect state; but, though this 

 juice be rough and astringent in the bark, and other parts of the tree, and even in the 

 fruit before it ripens, vet, when it grows to full perfection, it becomes sweet and gela- 

 tinous, with an agreeable clamminess, and is very much esteemed. The juice of this 

 fruit (a little before it is perfectly ripe) being mixed with a small quantity of orange 

 juice (or eating both fruit at a time) binds the body more than any thing I have ever 

 known, and doubtless would make a very powerful remedy on many occasions ; but I 

 doubt if the action of the fire would not take off a.great deal of the native roughness of 

 the juice, in case it had been inspissated by that means. 



I doubt if this ought to be separated from the achras on any account, though the 

 characters of the flower dilfer in many respects; the germen has ten distinct lodges, but 

 most of the seeds abort, and, when the fruit is ripe, it seldom contains above four or 

 five. Broicne. 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM. HYPOXIS. 



Cl. 6, or. 1 Ilexandria monogynia. Nat. or. Coronarite. 

 This generic name is derived from a Greek word for sharpish. 

 Gen. char. Calyx a two-valved glume ; corolla one-petaled, six-parted, perma- 

 nent, superior; stamens six filaments, with oblong anthers ; the pistil has an in- 

 ferior 



