PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 189 



It demands a very hot climate, for Roxburgh could not 

 make it grow north of twenty-three and a half degrees 

 of latitude in India/ and, transported to Jamaica, it bears 

 but poor fruit.^ It is cultivated in the Sunda Islands, in 

 the Malay Peninsula, and in Ceylon. 



The species is certainly wild in the forests of the Sunda 

 Islands ^ and of the Malay Peninsula.* Among cultivated 

 plants it is one of the most local, both in its origin, 

 habitation, and in cultivation. It belongs, it is true, to 

 one of those families in which the mean area of the 

 species is most restricted. 



Mamey, or Mammee Apple — Mammea Americana, 

 Jacquin. 



This tree, of the order Guttifer?e, requires, like the 

 mangosteen, great heat. Although much cultivated in 

 the West Indies and in the hottest parts of Venezuela,^ 

 its culture has seldom been attempted, or has met with 

 but little success, in Asia and Africa, if we are to judge 

 by the silence of most authors. 



It is certainly indigenous in the forests of most of the 

 West Indies.^ Jacquin mentions it also for the neigh- 

 bouring continent, but I do not find this confirmed by 

 modern authors. The best illustration is that in Tussac's 

 Flore des Antilles, iii. pi. 7, and this author gives a 

 number of details respecting the use of the fruit. 



Ochro, or Gombo — Hibiscus esculentns, Linnaeus. 



The young fruits of this annual, of the order of 

 Malvaceae, form one of the most delicate of tropical 

 vegetables. Tussac's Flore des Antilles contains a fine 

 plate of the species, and gives all the details a gourmet 

 could desire on the manner of preparing the caloidou, so 

 much esteemed by the Creoles of the French colonies. 



^ Royle, HI. Himal., p. 133, and Roxburgh, Fl. Ind,, ii. p. 618. 

 ' Macfadyen, Flora of Jamaica, p. 134. 



•* Rampliius, Amboin., i. p. 133 ; Miquel, PlantcB Junghun., i. p, 290 ; 

 Flora Indo-Batava, i. pt. 2, p. 506. 



* Hooker, Flora of Brit. Ind., i. p. 260. 



' Ernst in Seemann, Journal of Botany, 18G7, p. 273; Triaua and 

 P:anchon, Prodr. Fl. Novo-G-ranat., p. 285. 



* Sloane, Jamaica, i. p. 123; Jacquin, Am.er., p. 263; Grisebach, 

 Fl of Brit. W. Ind. Isles, p. 118. 



