10 The Custard Apple in Queensland. 



Director of the Botanic Gardens, Georgetown, British Guiana, and in due 

 course four seeds arrived. These were planted, but only three germi- 

 nated. One plant was placed in the old Economic Ground at Bowen 

 Park, another was planted by Mr. Katterns in his garden in Sneyd street, 

 Bowen Hills, the plant being given to him by Mr. Pink, and the third 

 plant was placed in the Botanic Gardens on the flat just a little distance 

 below where the existing bandstand is erected. The plant at Bowen Park 

 never made much headway, and it finally perished. The plant in the 

 Botanic Gardens grew, but never, so far as I know, bore fruit. It was 

 destroyed in the 1893 flood along with many other plants that were 

 submerged. Mr. Katterns' tree, therefore, became the sole survivor, and 

 in this year of grace 1922 is still growing vigorously. 



About the middle of the eighties the late Mr. Leslie Gordon Corrie 

 was actively on the lookout for all sorts of novelties in the way of fruit 

 trees. On one of his visits to me I showed him a fruit gathered from Mr. 

 Katterns' tree. He got quite enthusiastic over it, and I forthwith took 

 him to see the tree growing, and told him how it originated and how a 

 few of us enthusiasts were keeping it under observation. On arrival at 

 Mr. Katterns' that gentleman told Mr. Corrie the story of its origin, and 

 in a letter to me from Mr. Corrie, dated 8th January, 1917, he repeats 

 the whole of the interview that took place with Mr. Katterns 011 his first 

 introduction to the tree, and invites my criticism as to its accuracy 



[Extract from letter.] 



"18 Parbury House, Eagle street, Brisbane, 8th January, 1917. 

 "Dear Mr. Soutter, A good many years ago somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood of twenty years, it may be more when I was keenly on 

 the hunt for Custard Apples, you showed me some fruit at Bowen Park 

 one day, and said it came from a tree growing quite close, and you took 

 me right away to see it at the back of Mr. Katterns' cottage off O'Connell 

 terrace. That was my first sight of the tree. When I was admiring its 

 stem and growth Mr. Katterns said it never gave trouble, but grew well 

 from the day he planted it, when it was less than the thickness of his little 

 finger. He gave me some fruit, and promised me cuttings later on, which 

 he duly gave me, and from these my trees were worked. This is how I 

 got this variety. Mr. Katterns also related, as you will no doubt 

 remember, how^ he got the tree. He said some work was going on near 

 the road on the society's boundary, and Mr. Pink, who was then with the 

 society, came over to the fence with the tree in his hand, and gave it him, 

 saying it was a good Custard Apple. 



"I raised the point, and somewhat of a discussion ensued, as to 

 whether it might not have been a worked tree, but Katterns said this 

 was not so, that it was just a straight stem like a whip, showing no sign of 

 ever having been worked, or cut, or pruned, and that he took and planted 

 it where it was now growing, and no one had ever interfered with it. 

 You also contended it was quite unlikely to have been worked; and, 

 indeed, I am myself certain it was a seedling. 



