G 



uava 



729 



produced by a Haytian species. The name is Greek, in reference to the aromatic 

 foliage and fruits. The type is Anamomis jragrans (Swartz) Grisebach, native of 



Jamaica. 



III. GUAVA 



GENUS PSIDIDM LINN^US 

 Species Psidium Guajava Linnaeus 



HIS tropical American species has escaped from cultivation in peninsular 

 Florida and southern California, where it occurs as a small tree or 

 shrub, in fields and thickets, reaching a maximum height of 5 meters, 

 with a trunk diameter of 1.5 dm. It is sometimes called Lemon 

 guava, and is the type of the genus. 



The bark is 1.5 mm. thick, close, smooth, and red-brown to gray. The twigs 

 are 4-angled and hairy. The leaves are quite persistent, opposite, firm in texture, 

 usually oblong, 4 to 8 cm, long, blunt or pointed, rounded or subcordate at the 

 base, entire-margined ; they are dark 

 green and quite smooth above, more 

 or less hairy and prominently veined 

 beneath ; the leaf-stalk is short. The 

 large flowers, appearing in early 

 spring and irregularly during the 

 summer, are white, solitary in the 

 axils; their 4 or 5 calyx-lobes separate 

 irregularly from each other, and are 

 I to 1.5 cm. long. The corolla con- 

 sists of 4 or 5 petals 1.5 to 2 cm. 

 long; stamens numerous, white, the 

 anthers small; ovary inferior, 2- to 

 5-celled; style filiform, longer than 

 the stamens; stigma capitate; ovules many in each cell. The fruit is a globular 

 or pear-shaped, leathery-skinned berry, yellow or pinkish, 3 to 6 cm. in diameter 

 with an aromatic, sHghtly acidulous pulp, and many small hard seeds imbedded 

 therein. 



The wood is hard, strong and elastic, close-grained and brownish or reddish 

 gray; its specific gravity is about 0.69. It is used in the tropics in small amounts 

 for agricultural implements, tool-handles, and in carpentry. The fruit is largely 

 used in the manufacture of jelly and presei-ves, Guava jelly and Guava paste 

 being great favorites; the raw fruit, however, is rather insipid. 



The genus consists of about 130 species of trees or shrubs of tropical America. 

 The name is Greek, in reference to the edible fruit of the typical species. 



Fig. 669. Guava. 



