CHAPTER lY. 



PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS.^ 



Sweet Sop, Sugar Apple ^ — Aiiona squamosa, Linn?eus. 

 (In British India, Custard Apple ; but this is the name 

 of Anona niuricata in America.) 



The orioinal liome of this and other cultivated 

 Anonacea3 has been the subject of doubts, wliich make 

 it an interesting problem. I attempted to resolve them 

 in 1855. The opinion at which I then arrived has been 

 confirmed by the subsequent observations of travellers, 

 and as it is useful to show how far probabihties based 

 upon sound methods lead to true assertions, I will trans- 

 cribe what I then said,^ mentioning afterwards the more 

 recent discoveries. 



" Robert Brown proved in 1818 that all the species 

 of the genus Anona, excepting Anona senegalensis, 

 belong^ to America, and none to Asia. Aug. de Saint- 

 Hilaire says that, according to Veliozo, A. squamosa was 

 introduced into Brazil, that it is known there under 

 the name of pinha, from its resemblance to a fir-cone, 

 and of ata, evidently borrowed from the names attoa and 

 atis, which are those of the same plant in Asia, and 

 which belong to Eastern languages. Therefore, adds de 



* The word frait is here employed in the vulgar sense, for any fleshy 

 part "vvhich enlarges after the flowering. In the strictly botanit-al sense, 

 the Anonacese, strawberries, cashews, pine-apples, and breadfruit are not 

 fruits. 



^ A. squamosa is figured in Descourtilz, Flore des Antilles, ii. pi. 83 ; 

 Hooker's Bot. Mag., 3095 ; and Tussac, Flore des Antilles, iii. pi. 4. 



' A, de Candolle, Geogr. Bat. Rais., p. 859. 



