NOTES ON FRUITS. 163 



MoNSTERA. — Hovey & Co., exhibited on the 26th of September, a 

 fruit of 3f ouster a deliciosa (formerly known as Philodendron pertu- 

 sum) . It is a hothouse plant, belonging to the order Aracece, which 

 also includes the Eichardia Africana, so generall}' cultivated under 

 the name of Calla, and is a native of Mexico and the West Indies. 

 Messrs. Hovey have fruited it for two or three years, being, so 

 far as is known, the first to produce the fruit in this country. The 

 following account, condensed raainl3' fron:! the " Gardener's Chron- 

 icle " for 1864, p. 962, with some additions and amendments by 

 Charles M. Hovey, agrees with the fruit ripened by them. 



The plant produces from six to eight flower spikes at a time, 

 these being changed in twelve months into an equal number of 

 succulent fruits. The flower spikes are produced from the main 

 stem on stalks about a foot in length, and are each about eight 

 inches long and five inches in circumference. The sessile flowers, 

 which form a close c^dindrical spike or spadix, are arranged in a 

 spiral manner, and consist of hexagonal fleshy bodies, marked on 

 the face with an oblong umbilicate scar, representing the stigma, 

 and with the short stamens protruding from between them. The 

 spadix is wrapped round by a broad pale-colored spathe, which 

 resembles that of an immense Calla. 



The spadix, when in the fruiting state, becomes somewhat 

 thicker than when in flower, but without otherwise materially 

 changing in appearance. Each " fruit," that is each succulent 

 compound spike, attains about a pound in weight, and is found to 

 be composed, like the pineapple, of numerous " pips," which are 

 arranged in a spiral manner around a central column, from which, 

 however, and from each other, unlike the pineapple, they separate 

 readily when ripe. When whole the surface of the fruit is mai'ked 

 into as many separate hexagonal meshes as there are pips, each 

 being from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch across, of a sage 

 green, somewhat depressed around the centre, which is elevated in 

 the form of a small oblong scar. This green portion separates 

 from the edible portion, when ripe, in the form of a rind or scale, 

 nearly the eighth of an inch in thickness. Each pip has its upper 

 end hexagonal, as just mentioned, but below it assumes the form 

 Qf a blunt, square-ended wedge, so that it has a linear-oblong 

 attachment of about one-fourth of an inch long, whence a spiral 

 series of linear-oblong depressions, surrounded by short dark- 

 colored scales, becomes marked on the central column. The wedge 



