PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 17 i 



It was cultivated in India in Roxburgh's day ; ^ he had 

 not seen the wild plant, and only mentions one common 

 name in a modern language, the Bengali ata, which is 

 already in Rheede. Later the name guncla-gatra ^ was 

 believed to be Sanskrit, but Dr. Royle ^ having consulted 

 Wilson, the famous author of the Sanskrit dictionary, 

 touching the antiquity of this name, he replied that it 

 ^vas taken from the Sahda Chanrika, a comparatively 

 modern compilation. The names of ata, ati, are found 

 in Rheede and Rumphius.* This is doubtless the founda- 

 tion of Saint-Hilaire's argument ; but a nearly similar 

 name is given to Anona squamosa in Mexico. This 

 name is ate, ahate di Panucho, found in Hernandez^ 

 with two similar and rather poor figures which may be 

 attributed either to A. squctmosa, sls Dunal^ thinks, or 

 to A. cherimolia, according to Martius.'' Oviedo uses 

 the name anon.^ It is very possible that the name ata 

 was introduced into Brazil from Mexico and the neigh- 

 bouring countries. It may also, I confess, have come 

 from the Portuguese colonies in the East Indies. Mar- 

 tins says, however, that the species was imported from 

 the West India Islands.^ I do not know whether he had 

 any proof of this, or whether he speaks on the authority 

 of Oviedo's work, which he quotes and which I cannot 

 consult Oviedo's article, translated by Marcgraf,^^ 

 describes A. squamosa without speaking of its origin. 



Forskal viaited that country ; it was called Tceschta, that is, coagulated 

 milk. The rarity of its cultivation and the silence of ancient authors 

 shows that ic was of modem introducliou into Egypt. Ebn Baithar 

 (Sondtheimer's German translation, in 2 vols., 1840), an Arabian physician 

 of the thirteenth century, mentions no Anonacea, nor the name keschta. 

 I do not see that Forskal's description and illustration (Descr., p. 102. ic. 

 tab. 15) differ from A. squamosa. Coquebert's specimen, mentioned in 

 the Systema, agrees with Forskal's plate j but as it is in flower while 

 the plate shows the fruit, its identity cannot be proved. 



^ Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., edit. 1832, v. ii. p. 657. 



2 Piddington, Index, y. 6. ^ Royle, III. Hmi., p. 60. 



* Rheede ana Rumpiuuf^, i. p. 139. 



* Hernandez, pp. 348, 454. « Dunal, Mem. Anon., p. 70. 

 ' Martius, FL Bras., faso. ii. p. 15. 



* Hence the generic name .4ri07ia, which Linngeus changed to Annona 

 (provision), because he did not wish to have any savage name, and did 

 not mind a pun. 



^ Martius, FL Bras., faec. ii. p. 15. ^'^ Marcgraf, Brazil, p. 94. 



