24:4< ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



mountains in San Domingo and the other islands 

 entirely covered with guavas, and the natives say that 

 there were no such trees in the islands before the 

 arrival of the Spaniards, who brought them, I know not 

 whence." The mainland seems, therefore, to have been 

 the original home of the species. Acosta says that it 

 grows in South America, adding that the Peruvian 

 guavas have a white flesh superior to that of the red 

 fruit. This argues an ancient cultivation on the main- 

 land. Hernandez ^ saw both varieties wild in Mexico in 

 the warm regions of the plains and mountains near 

 Quauhnaci. He gives a description and a fair draw- 

 ing of P. 2^omiferum. Piso and Marcgraf ^ also found 

 the two guavas wild in the plains of Brazil ; but they 

 remark that it spreads readily. Marcgraf says that 

 they were believed to be natives of Peru or of North 

 America, by which he may mean the West Indies or 

 Mexico. Evidently the species was wild in a great part 

 of the continent at the time of the discovery of America. 

 If the area was at one time more restricted, it must have 

 been at a far more remote epoch. 



Different common names were given by the different 

 native races. In Mexico it was xalxocotl ; in Brazil the 

 tree was called araca-iha, the fruit araca guacu ; lastly, 

 the name guajavos, or guajava, is quoted by Acosta and 

 Hernandez for the guavas of Peru and San Domingo 

 without any precise indication of origin. This diversity 

 of names confirms the hypothesis of a very ancient and 

 extended area. 



From what ancient travellers say of an origin foreign 

 to San Domingo and Brazil (an assertion, however, which 

 we may be permitted to doubt), I suspect that the most 

 ancient habitation extended from Mexico to Columbia 

 and Peru, possibl}^ including Brazil before the discovery 

 of America, and the West Indies after that event. In its 

 earliest state, the species bore spherical, highly coloured 

 fruit, harsh to the taste. The other form is perhaps the 

 result of cultivation. 



^ Hernandez, Novcb Eispanics Thesaurus, p. 85. 

 2 Piso, Hist. Brasil, p. 74 j Marcgraf, ibid., p. 105. 



