SO OX THE CULTURE OF PSIDIUM CATTLEUXUM. 



ARTICLE III.— On the Culture of Psidium Cattleid- 

 nwn ( Cattle y s Purple Guava) . By the Author of 

 the "Domestic Gardener's Manual," C.M.H.S. 



This is an interesting and very beautiful shrub — a strong and 

 perfect evergreen; and though a native of South America, and 

 therefore delighting in a warm situation, is still very far from ten- 

 der. It was introduced in 1818, or about that year. 



All the subjects of the natural order Myrtacete are worthy of 

 great attention ; and none more so than the many species of the 

 genus Myrlus — the Myrtle, which gives the title to, and is the 

 type of, the order : — witness also the Guava (Psidium) ; Pimento, 

 or Allspice, (Pimenla) ; Pomegranate (Punka), Leptospermum, 

 Metrosideros, Melaleuca, &c. &c. ; most or all of which agree in 

 having punctated or dotted evergreen leaves, with singular mar- 

 ginal ribs, and a seed-vessel, which in many instances is a pulpy 

 berry, below the flower. 



The plant that forms the subject of this paper may be raised 

 with the greatest facility, aided by a little heat, as that of a gentle 

 hotbed, or temperate moist stove. The fruit of the tree — for tin 

 it is in its own climate — is a berry, with a purplish pulp, and 

 several seeds : it is borne at the axils of the leaves, and becomes 

 ripe in the stove during the winter. A large tree, of from 10 to 

 14 feet high, will produce fruit enough for the dessert ; and the 

 flavour is very agreeable. The seeds attain perfect maturity ; and 

 from three berries, which were about the size of large round 

 Grapes, I, in January 1833, raised nearly a dozen plants : thev 

 were sown in a small pot of light soil, about half an inch below 

 the surface : the earth was kept just free and moist, on the shelf 

 of a stove pit, where the temperature fell, on many occasions, to 50 

 or 52 degrees. The progress of the young seedlings is very gra- 

 tifying : they soon vegetate ; the true leaves appear, and from that 

 period the plants do not lose a leaf for eighteen months or more, 

 li; ing clothed from the bottom of the stem to the extreme point of 

 the shoot. When the seedlings have grown an inch or two high, 

 they should be cautiously raised, with soil adhering to the fibres, 

 and transferred, each to the smallest pot, into a soil composed of 

 soft sandy loam, with about one-third of well '•reduced leaf-mould. 

 If upon removal the pots be kept gently, but consistently moist, 

 and placed within a small propagation frame, $jx inches deep 



