GUAYAS. 



fTlWO species of Guava are esteemed for their fruit, both raw and in the state of jelly. 

 The fruit has the best flavour when thoroughly ripe and ready to fall off. It may 

 then be eaten, like strawberries, with sugar and cream, the fruit being sliced and sugared 

 from two to eight hours before using. Guavas make splendid pies. Their chief use, 

 however, is for jelly, which is universally acknowledged to be the finest that is made. 



VARIETIES. 



PEAR-SHAPED WHITE GUAVA (Psidium pyriferum). 

 Flower white, May and June ; fruit pear-shaped, 

 about the size of a hen's egg, very smooth ; sulphur 

 yellow, tinged with red ; pulp flesh-coloured, sweet, 

 aromatic, and grateful to the palate. Evergreen 

 low tree, 10 to 20 feet. West Indies. This species 

 requires a stove temperature. 



STRAWBERRY, or CATTLEY'S GUAVA (P. Cattleyanum). 

 Flower small, white, fragrant, May ; fruit spheri- 

 cal, nearly round, about the size of a small walnut ; 

 skin deep claret, resembling, but thinner than, the 

 skin of the fig ; pulp soft, fleshy, purplish red 

 next the skin, paler towards the middle, and quite 



white in the centre ; juicy, in consistence much 

 like a strawberry, which it resembles in flavour. 

 Evergreen, bushy, low tree, 10 to 20 feet. Native 

 of China, whence it has been introduced into 

 Brazil, and is extensively grown in both countries. 

 The bushes are heavy bearers, " and more jelly can 

 be made from an acre of guavas than from any 

 other kind of fruit, currants not excepted " (Wick- 

 son). The strawberry guava is the best for culti- 

 vation in this country. It succeeds in warm 

 greenhouses ami in light conservatories, is orna- 

 mental, and affords a long succession of fruit often 

 from September through the winter. 



Propagation. This is effected by seeds, layers, and cuttings. Seeds taken from the 

 finest perfectly ripe fruit, sown at once in sandy soil, placed in gentle heat, and kept 

 moist, soon produce plants, which, if potted singly when large enough, and grown in 

 a light position, fruit in about the third year. Layers of the half-ripe young shoots, 

 tongued or notched at a joint, placed in small pots, filled with sandy soil and kept 

 moist, become sufficiently rooted for detaching in six to eight weeks. Layers of ripe 

 wood require about a year to become well rooted. Cuttings of the young shoots, getting 

 a little firm at their base, inserted in sand under a bell glass, and placed in bottom heat, 

 root freely in a few weeks, when they should be inured to the air of the house and 

 potted singly, keeping the plants in small pots through the winter and in plenty of light. 

 In the spring they should be shifted into larger pots, and if well grown they will fruit 

 in the second or third year, 



