62 ANONACEiE. Anona. 



Order III. ANONACE^. 



By a. Gkat. 



Trees or shrubs ; with herbage as of the preceding order, but no stipules ; the 

 flowers all hermaphrodite and equally 3-merous (by occasional variation 4-5- 

 merous) and hypogynous ; a calyx of 3 sepals valvate in the bud, corolla of 

 G petals in two unlike series ; indefinitely numerous stamens imbricated on an 

 enlarged receptacle, their anthers extrorsely adnate and longer than the fila- 

 ments ; carpels either distinct or when imbricated on a prolongation of the 

 receptacle cohering to form an aggregate fruit; ovules anatropous, and large 

 seeds with a crustaceous coat, ruminated albumen (in the manner of a nutmeg), 

 and a minute embryo. Sepals and petals deciduous. A tropical order, except 

 in the Atlantic United States. 



1 . ANONA. Petals valvate in the bud, thick and fleshy, those of the inner series smaller 

 but little different from the outer. Anther-tips convex. Carpels numerous, one-ovuled, 

 imbricated over the elongated receptacle and more or less confluent in a mass, forming a 

 fleshy aggregate fruit. 



2. ASIMINA. Petals of each series imbricated in the bud (at least the outer or the inner 

 distant), accrescent, membranaceous or thinnish, veiny, commonly rugulose, more or less 

 dissimilar ; the outer plane and spreading ; inner smaller and erect, mostly thicker, concave 

 at base. Stamens densely covering the globose torus : anther-tips depressed and pulvinate. 

 Carpels few or several, distinct, sessile or very short-stipitate, few-many-seeded, only one to 

 three or four (or rarely six) maturing into oblong baccate fruits. Seeds horizontal, encased 

 in a thin membranaceous arillus. 



1. ANONA, L. Custard Apple. (Corruption of a Malayan name, 



menona or manoa, not from the Latin annona, provision or annual produce.) — 



Tropical American trees, early carried round the world : the following natural 



to S. Florida. — Syst. Nat. ed. 1, & Gen. no. 446; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 27. 



A. laurifolia, Dunal. Tree 10 to 30 feet high, glabrous: leaves oval to oblong: outer 

 petals inch or two long, ovate or subcordate ; inner obovate, somewhat cucullate-concave : 

 fruit (hardly edible in the manner of the cultivated custard apples) 3 or 4 inches long, the 

 carpels all completely fused at maturity into a smooth-rinded apple-like or pear-shaped mass. 

 — Monog. Anon. 65 (Catesb. Car. ii. 67, t. 67) ; DC. Prodr. i. 84 ; Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, 603 ; 

 Sargent, U. S. 10th Census, ix. 23.1 Porrelia parvlflora, Audubon, Birds Amer. ii. t. 162 

 (and in 8vo ed. v. 14, t. 281). — Low islands and everglades, S. E. Florida. (W. Ind., 

 S. Am.) 



2. ASfMINA, Adans. Papaw of N. Americans. (Abbreviation of 

 Assiminier of the French colonrsts, who took the name from the Indians.) — 

 Consists of a small tree and three or four low shrubs of Atlantic U. S., not aro- 

 matic, but bruised herbage and bark unpleasantly heavy-scented : flowers ill- 

 scented ; solitary or few in a fascicle, produced from the axils of preceding or 



1 Add syn. ? A. glabra, L. Spec. i. 537 (Catesb. Car. ii. G4, t. 64). The identity of this species 

 with Dunal's, of later description, lias been maintained by Sargent, Gard. & For. ii. 616, & Silv. 

 i. 29, t. 17, 18; but the Linntean species, founded solely upon Catesby's flowerless figure with obvi- 

 ously erroneous habitat, is certainly too indefinite to be satisfactorily revived. Especially is this the 

 case, as Catesby, upon whose two figures the species were foimded, evidently regarded them as dif- 

 ferent plants. 



