PERIPATETIC BOTANY 117 



novelty, he kindly offered me one. This, also, I 

 forthwith carried into the city, stopping passen- 

 gers by the way like a natural-historical So- 

 crates to ask them about it. No one, white or 

 black, could tell me anything till in a fruit shop 

 I questioned a white boy. " It 's a seven-year 

 apple," he said. " Some foolish local name," I 

 thought. At all events it could do me no good, 

 since it was not to be found in Chapman's index. 

 But that evening, on my showing the specimen 

 to the entomologist, and telling her what the boy 

 had said, she replied, " Certainly, that is right. 

 The plant is Genipa, or seven-year apple." And 

 under the word " Genipa " I found it so spoken 

 of in the Standard Dictionary. There the fruit 

 is said to be edible, which seems to disprove the 

 conjecture of another lady to whom I had shown 

 it, that it derives its name from the fact that it 

 would take an eater seven years to digest it. 

 Apples, like men, are not fairly to be judged 

 in the green state. 



I have said that this guessing at characters 

 and relationships is not a bad discipline. And 

 no more is it the worst of fun. Of this I had 

 only two days ago a strikingly happy proof. 

 Everywhere in the hammock there grows a tall 

 tree, noticeable for the peculiar color of its bark 

 and its channeled and often fantastically con- 



