LUI. MYRTACE.'E. 357 



to taste its relishing fruit, since the Jambos cultivated in Golungo 

 Alto is not very perfect, although not deficient in the rose-scent 

 which characterises the original fruit from India. The Guiaveira 

 {Psidium Guajava L.) and the Aracareiro {P. guineensis Swartz) 

 are commonly cultivated nearly throughout the province, and they 

 also luxuriate as if wild ; the guava seldom attains in Angola, and 

 then only under favourable conditions, a greater height than 

 25 ft., with a trunk of 6 in. in diameter, giving off at the height 

 of 5 or 6 ft. strong lateral branches. 



In Qaitage and near Bumba, on his return from Quisonde to 

 Pungo Andongo, in March 1857, Welwitsch purchased several 

 baskets of excellent guava fruits, each basket containing 60 fine 

 fruits, for a vintem — that is, 20 reis, about a penny. The wood 

 of the guava tree is of a whitish-grey colour, somewhat verging 

 on brown, fibrous, extremely hard and dry, and exceptionally 

 durable ; the negroes use it for frames of various kinds of musical 

 instruments, for carving idols, and for spoons and other such 

 utensils : this tree is the " Djamboe-Biedji " of the natives in the 

 Dutch Indian archipelago. 



The Pitangueira {Eugenia uniflora L.) produces excellent fruits, 

 which are like cherries. 



In the Apontamentos, p. 570, Welwitsch speaks of a species 

 of Syzygium [Eugenia), which is a magnificent tree of 100 ft. in 

 height and more, with a majestic evergreen head, and which 

 adorns the banks of rivulets in Golungo Alto and Cazengo ; this 

 is perhaps Eugenia guineensis. In his ms. notes he also speaks 

 of a beautiful evergreen tree, 15 to 25 ft. high in Huilla and 80 

 to 100 ft. in Bumbo, which is the Louro (laurel) or Loureiro of 

 colonists in Huilla, and the native name is "Nohombo"; it is 

 stately and very elegant, having coriaceous shining leaves, and 

 throwing out, immediately after the first October rains, large 

 bunches of white or brownish flowers, which from December and 

 January to March and April are developed into den^e bunches 

 of olive-like berries, as large as a walnut or a little smaller, of 

 a dark-purple or greenish-purple or red -blue colour, and slightly 

 or acid-sweet to the taste and somewhat musky; the natives eat 

 them with avidity, although when first masticated they are rank- 

 musky and very disagreeable : they are nearly always on sale in 

 the shops at Lopollo. The wood Ls brown, dense, and of a fine 

 grain. It is very abundant in the neighbourhood of Bumbo and 

 Lopollo, and in the whole of Serra da Xella, especially along 

 streams. This is perhaps Eugenia henguellensis Welw. 



1. PSIDIUM L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 713. 



1. P. Guajava L. Sp. PI. edit. 1 p. 470 (1753) ; Welw. Apont. 

 p. 570 sub n. 170 {P. Guaiava); Ficalho PI. Uteis p. 18-1 (1884) 

 {P. Guayava). 



P.pyriferum L. Sp. PI. edit. 2 p. 672 (1762). /'. pomi/eriim L., 

 I.e., p. 672 ; Laws, in Oliv. FI. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 436 ; Ficalho in 

 Bol. Soc. Geogr. Lisb. ii. p. 709 (1882). 



