Nov. 1902. Flora of the Island of St. Croix — Millspaugh. 445 



are common. The fruit of the former often attains a diameter of 

 seven or eight inches and has a smooth tuberculate, green surface; 

 the white curdy pulp having a pleasant acid taste and making a very 

 delicious sherbet. The custard apple is sweet and aromatic, full of 

 silicious granules. It is usually about the size of an apple, pale- 

 green with deeply reticulated or areolated surface. The mamey 

 apple [Mamtnea Americana) is round, russet-brown, from three to 

 eight or more inches in diameter. The outer skin is tough and one- 

 eighth inch to one-quarter inch thick. It separates readily from the 

 firm, yellow, juicy, slightly-stringy flesh which has a mild, sweetly 

 acid taste. The big, brown, scaly seed separates readily. The 

 cherry [Maipighia glabra) furnishes excellent, clear jellies and pre- 

 serves. The bush is very prolific, bears several crops a year, the 

 berries being shiny-red and roundish or cuboidal in shape, about the 

 size of our common cherry. The flavor is sharp and pleasant. 

 Tamarinds are abundantly grown, their cinnamon-brown, indehiscent 

 pods being several inches long, very brittle, and free from the 

 brownish, intensely acid flesh in which the seeds are embedded. 

 They are packed in syrup and shipped to the United vStates in kegs 

 or jars; if eaten without sugar the tong.ue becomes sore in a short 

 time. The trees grow to a very large size and the }'ellow wood is 

 very hard and tough. The guava berries {^Eugenia floribiinda) are 

 shiny black, about the size of small marbles, bitterly aromatic, mak- 

 ing good preserves. Mouriria domingensis (Walp.) has a fruit much 

 like a persimmon in taste, color, size and shape. It is rare, however, 

 and its qualities little known, though I have eaten it and found it 

 excellent. The bell-apple {Passiflora laurifolia) has a large berry 

 whose pulp, resembling raw white of an egg, has the taste of rose- 

 water and makes a delicate dessert eaten from wine glasses. The 

 red manjack (Cordia collococca) has bright crimson berries the size of 

 cherries with an astringent, glutinous flesh. The calabash {Cres- 

 centia cujcte), whose fruit is used for making cooking utensils, is 

 very common. , The blossoms appear principally on the trunk and 

 thick limbs much like adventitious buds. The fruit is round 

 or nearly so, varying from three inches to a foot in diameter 

 — green, smooth and hard. The shell, which is about one-eighth 

 to one-quarter inch thick, contains a pulpy flesh adherent to 

 it. This shell is prepared for use by sawing the fruit in 

 half, scooping out the pulp, and then boiling in water with ashes. 

 A sharp shell is then used to scrape the inside surface, when 

 it is set away for several weeks to cure. The vessel is then of a 

 brown color, brittle but hard, and is ready to be used in cooking. 



