170 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Abyssinia and Egypt, which proves a recent introduction 

 into Africa ; lastly, as the Cape Verde Isles have lost a 

 great part of their primitive forests, I believe that this 

 is a case of naturalization from seed escaped from gardens. 

 Authors are agreed in considering the species wild in 

 Jamaica. Formerl}^ the assertions of Sloane^ and Brown^ 

 might have been disregarded, but they are confirmed by 

 Macfadyen.^ Martins found the species wild in the 

 virgin forests of Para.* He even says, ' Sylvescentem in 

 nemoribus iKiraensihus inveni,' whence it may be in- 

 ferred that these trees alone formed a forest. Splitgerber^ 

 found it in the forests of Surinam, but he says, 'An 

 spontanea?' The number of localities in this part of 

 America is significant. I need not remind my readers 

 that no tree growing elsewhere than on the coast has 

 been found truly indigenous at once in tropical Asia, 

 Africa, and America.^ The result of my researches renders 

 such a fact almost impossible, and if a tree were robust 

 enough to extend over such an area, it would be extremely 

 common in all tropical countries. 



"Moreover, historical and philological facts tend also 

 to confirm the theory of an American origin. The details 

 given by Rumphius '^ show that Anona squamosa was 

 a plant newly cultivated in most of the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago. Forster does not mention the culti- 

 vation of any Anonacea in the small islands of the 

 Pacific.^ Rheede ^ says that A. squamosa is an exotic 

 in Malabar, but was brought to India, fii'st by the Chinese 

 and the Arabs, afterwards by the Portuguese. It is cer- 

 tainly cultivated in China and in Cochin-China,^^ and in 

 the Philippine Isles,^^ but we do not know from what 

 epoch. It is doubtful whether the Arabs cultivate it.^^ 



^ Sloane, Jam., ii. p. 168. ^ P. Brown, Jam,., p. 257. 



' Macfadyen, Fl. Jam., p. 9. * Martins, Ft. Bras., fasc. ii. p. 15. 



^ Splitgerber, Nederl. Kruidh. Arch., ii. p. 230. 



^ A. de Candolle, Geogr. Bot. Rais., chap. x. 



'' Eumpldus, i. p. 139. ^ Forster, Plantce Esculentie. 



* Elieede, Malabar, iii. p. 22. ^° Loureiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 427. 



" Blanco, Fl. Filip. 



" This depends npon the opinion formed with respect to A. glabra, 

 Forskal {A. Asiatica, B. Dun. Anon., p. 71 ; A. Forshalii, D. C. Syst., 

 i. p. 472), which was sometimes cultivated in gardens in Egypt when 



