148 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



long. The cashew, like the mango, is polygamous; that is, 

 some of the flowers are unisexual (staminate) and others 

 bisexual, both types being produced on the same panicle. The 

 calyx is five-partite, the corolla i inch broad, with five linear- 

 lanceolate, yellow-pink petals. The stamens are usually nine 

 in number, all fertile. The ovary is obovoid, with the style 

 placed to one side. 



The fruit is peculiar. The part which would be taken for the 

 fruit at first glance is in reality the swollen peduncle and disk, 

 while the fruit proper is the kidney-shaped cashew-nut attached 

 to its lower end. The fleshy portion may be termed the cashew- 

 apple, in order to distinguish it from the true fruit, or cashew- 

 nut. It differs in size, being sometimes as much as 3i inches in 

 length, while it may be less than 2 inches. The surface is 

 commonly brilliant yellow or flame-scarlet in color. The skin 

 is a thin membrane, easily broken ; the flesh light yellow in color 

 and very juicy. The kidney-shaped nut which is attached to its 

 lower end contains the single oblong seed. 



The cashew was formerly thought, by some writers at least, 

 to be indigenous both in America and Asia. It has been shown, 

 however, that it was originally confined to America, whence it 

 was carried to Asia and Africa by early Portuguese voyagers. 

 Jacques Huber l considered it indigenous on the campos (plains) 

 and dunes of the lower Amazon region and the north Brazilian 

 coast in general. It spread very early to other parts of the 

 tropical American seacoast, and probably was introduced into 

 the West Indies by the Indians who reached those islands from 

 the South American mainland before the arrival of Europeans. 

 Gabriel Soares de Souza, one of the earliest chroniclers of 

 Brazil, found the tree growing both wild and cultivated on the 

 coast of Bahia in the sixteenth century. He mentions a "fra- 

 grant and delicious wine" which the Indians prepared from the 

 fruit. 



1 Boletim do Museu Goeldi, 1904. 



