178 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



The tree is smaller than that of most other species of the 

 genus, its maximum height being 15 to 20 feet. Like the 

 cherimoya, it is semi-deciduous. The leaves resemble those 

 of A . reticulata except in their smaller size ; they are lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate in form, acute or shortly acuminate at the 

 apex and acute at the base, 2i to 4 inches long, pale green on 

 both surfaces, and glabrate or nearly so, except for the sparsely 

 pubescent petiole. The flowers, which are produced singly or 

 in clusters of two to four, resemble those of A. reticulata. 

 They are greenish yellow in color, about an inch long, the three 

 outer petals oblong, thick, rounded at the tips; the inner 

 petals minute, ovate. The fruit is round, heart-shaped, ovate 

 or conical, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, yellowish green in color. 

 The surface is tuberculate and covered with a whitish bloom. 

 The pulp is white, custard-like, sweet and slightly acidulous in 

 flavor. The carpels, each of which normally contains a brown 

 seed the size of a small bean, cohere loosely or not at all, the 

 sugar-apple differing in this respect from the cherimoya, in 

 which it is difficult to distinguish carpellary divisions in the flesh. 



The sugar-apple is indigenous in tropical America. Its 

 abundance in India at a very early period has led several 

 botanists to assume that it was common to tropical America 

 and tropical Asia. More recently, however, the belief has 

 found acceptance that it was originally limited in its distribu- 

 tion to the New World. Alphonse DeCandolle, who dis- 

 cusses this subject at length, concludes : " It can hardly be 

 doubted, in my opinion, that its original home is America, 

 and in especial the West India islands." 



The arguments advanced in favor of an Asiatic origin for the 

 species were the occurrence of common names for it in Sanskrit ; 

 the fact of the tree growing wild in several parts of India ; and 

 the presence of carvings and wall-paintings, believed to rep- 

 resent the fruit, in the ruins of ancient Muttra and Ajanta. 

 Yule and Burnell (Hobson-Jobson) suggest that it may have 



