PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 199 



I said on the subject in 1855,^ I find them occasionally 

 reproduced. 



The French name PoinnTYiier d' acajou (mahogany 

 apple tree) is as absurd as it is possible to be. It is a 

 tree belonging to the order of Terebintacece or Anacar- 

 diacece, very different from the Rosacese and the Meliacese, 

 to which the apple and the mahogany belong. The 

 edible part is more like a pear than an apple, and botani- 

 caUy speaking is not a fruit, but the receptacle or sup- 

 port of the fruit, which resembles a large bean. The two 

 names, French and English, are both derived from a name 

 given to it by the natives of Brazil, acaju, acajaiha, 

 quoted by early travellers.^ The species is certainly wild 

 in the forests of tropical America, and indeed occupies a 

 wide area in that region ; it is found, for example, in 

 Brazil, Guiana, the Isthmus of Panama, and the West 

 Indies.^ Dr. Ernst * believes it is only indigenous in the 

 basin of the Amazon River, although he had seen it also 

 in Cuba, Panama, Ecuador, and New Granada. His 

 opinion is founded upon the absence of all mention of the 

 plant in Spanish authors of the time of the Conquest — a 

 negative proof, which establishes a mere probability. 



Rheede and Rumphius had also indicated this plant 

 in the south of Asia. The former says it is common on 

 the Malabar coast. ^ The existence of the same tropical 

 arborescent species in Asia and America was so little 

 probable, that it was at first suspected that there was a 

 difierence of species, or at least of variety ; but this was 

 not confirmed. Difierent historical and philological 

 proofs have convinced me that its origin is not Asiatic.^ 

 Moreover, Rumphius, who is always accurate, spoke of an 

 ancient introduction by the Portuguese into the Malay 

 Archipelago from America. The Malay name he gives, 



1 O^ogr. Bof. Eats., p. 873. 



• Piso and Marcgraf, Hist rer. Natur. Brasilj 1648, p, 57. 



• Vide Piso and Marcgraf; Aublet, Guyane, p. 392 ; Seemann, Bot 

 of the Herald, p. 106 ; Jacquin, Am^r.y p. 124 ; Macfadyen, PI, Jamaic^ 

 p. 119; Greisbach, Fl. of Brit W. Ind., p. 176. 



• Ernst in Seemann, Journ. of Bot, 1867, p. 273. 



• Rheede, Malabar, iii. pi. 54. 



• Rumphius, Herh. Avihoin., i. pp. 177, 178. 



14 



