CHAPTER IV. 



PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS.^ 



Sweet Sop, Sugar Apple "^ — Anona squamosa, Linnaeus. 

 (In British India, Custard Apple ; but this is the name 

 of Anona muricata in America.) 



The original home of this and other cultivated 

 Anonaceas has been the subject of doubts, which make 

 it an interesting problem. I attempted to resolve them 

 in 1855. The opinion at which I then arrived has been 

 confirmed by the subsequent observations of travellers, 

 and as it is useful to show how far probabilities based 

 upon sound methods lead to true assertions, I will trans- 

 cribe what I then said,^ mentioning afterwards the more 

 recent discoveries. 



" Robert Brown proved in 1818 that all the species 

 of the genus Anona, excepting Anona senegalensis, 

 belong to America, and none to Asia. Aug. de Saint- 

 Hilaire says that, according to Vellozo, A squamosa was 

 introduced into Brazil, that it is known there under 

 the name of ^9i/z/(ta, from its resemblance to a fir-cone, 

 and of ata, evidently borrowed from the names attoa and 

 atis, which are those of the same plant in Asia, and 

 which belong to Eastern languages. Therefore, adds de 



' The word fruit is here employed in the vulgar sense, for any fleshy 

 part which enlarges after the flowering. In the strictly botanical sense, 

 the Anonaceae, strawberries, cashews, pine-apples, and breadfruit are not 

 f rui ts. 



^ A. squamosa is figured in Descourtilz, Flore des Antilles, ii. pi. 83 ; 

 Hooker's Bat Mag., 3095 ; and Tussac, Flore des Antilles, iii. pi. 4. 



2 A. de Candolle, Geogr. Bot. Rais., p. 859. 



