PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 243 



Out of sixty species of the genus Psidium, all those 

 which have been carefully studied are American. It is 

 true that botanists from the sixteenth century have found 

 plants of Fsidiur)i guayava (varieties _29o?nz/eri(.m and 

 pyriferuni) more or less wild in the Malay Archipelago 

 and the south of Asia/ but everything tends to show 

 that these were the result of recent naturalization. In 

 each locality a foreign origin was admitted; the only 

 doubt was whether this origin was Asiatic or American. 

 Other considerations justify this idea. The common 

 names in Malay are derived from the American word 

 gidava. Ancient Chinese authors do not mention the 

 guava, though Loureiro said a century and a half ago 

 that they were growing wild in Cochin-China. Forster 

 does not mention them among the cultivated plants of 

 the Pacific Isles at the time of Cook's voyage, which 

 is significant Avhen we consider how easy this plant is 

 to cultivate and its ready dispersion. In Mauritius and 

 the Seychelles there is no doubt of their recent intro- 

 duction and naturalization.^ 



It is more difficult to discover from what part of 

 America the guava originally came. In the present 

 century it is undoubtedly wild in the West Indies, in 

 Mexico, in Central America, Venezuela, Peru, Guiana, 

 and Brazil.^ But whether this is only since Europeans 

 extended its cultivation, or whether it was previously 

 diffused by the agency of the natives and of birds, seems 

 to be no more certain than when I spoke on the subject 

 in 1855.* Now, however, with a little more experience 

 in questions of this nature, and since the specific unity 

 of the two varieties of guava is recognized, I shall 

 endeavour to show what seems most probable. 



J. Acosta,^ one of the earliest authors on the natural 

 history of the new world, expresses himself as follows, 

 about the spherical variety of the guava: "There are 



^ Rumphias, Amhoiyi, i. p. 141; Rheede, Hortus Malahariensis, iii'. t. 34. 

 ^ Bojex% Hortus Mamitianus ; Baker, Flora of Mauritius, p. 112. 

 ^ All the floras, and Berg in Flora Brasiliensis, vol. xiv. p. 196. 

 ^ Geogr. Bot. Rais., p. 894. 



* Acosta, Hist. Nat. et Morale des Indes Orient, et Occid., French, 

 trans., 1598, p. 175. 



