!i 
IS 
THE BAEBADOS CHEREY, 
As we have already stated^ two different plants bear the name of ^' Barbados Cherry/^ namely 
Malpiffhia glabra and M. jmnicifolia. They are however so very nearly allied, that their essential 
distinctions are not qnite clear. Those which are pointed out by M. Adrieh de Jussieu amount to 
little more than this ; in punkifolia the leaves are ^^ usually ^^ notched at the point, and in glabra they 
are taper-pointed ; in glabra the flowers are in umbels, the leaves covered beneath when young with 
those curious spicular double-pointed hairs attached by the middle, to which Botanists give the name 
of Malpigliiaceous, and the innermost petal larger than the others (we find it about twice as large) ; 
while in jpunidfoUa the flowers are solitary and the inner petal smallest. Nevertheless, Botanists 
seem to find it hard to distinguish the two. 
M. alabra is called in Barbados the E;ed Cherrv Tree 
He 
icribes the fruit of both species as beiner much used in preserves and tarts : but much inferior 
the Em'opean Cherry ; 
ce 
something 
the cherry .'' Ramon de la Sagra adds that the fruit 
he savs that after subiectinff them to boih'no* water thp 
In Cuba 
