THE ANNONACEOUS FRUITS 187 



the new branchlets. The three outer petals are oblong linear, 

 about an inch long ; the inner ones small, scale-like, and ovate 

 in form. The fruit is usually heart-shaped (whence its common 

 name), but it may be conical or oval. It weighs from a few 

 ounces to 2 pounds, and requires a long time to reach maturity. 

 The smooth surface, usually reddish-yellow or reddish-brown 

 in the ripe fruit, is divided by impressed lines into rhomboidal 

 or hexagonal areoles. The flesh, which contains numerous 

 brown seeds the size of a small bean, is milk-white in color, 

 granular near the thin skin, and sweet, even mawkish in flavor. 



Safford says of this species: "Its fruit is inferior in flavor 

 to both the cherimoya and the sugar-apple (A.squamosa), 

 from the first of which it may be distinguished by its long, 

 narrow, glabrate leaves, and from the second by its solid, com- 

 pact fruit as well as its larger leaves. From A. glabra, with 

 which it is also confused, it may be distinguished readily by its 

 elongate narrow outer petals and its small, dark brown seeds." 



The bullock's-heart is indigenous in tropical America. It is 

 more abundant in the gardens of seacoast and lowland towns 

 than its value warrants. From America it has been carried 

 to the Asiatic tropics, and it is now cultivated in India, Ceylon, 

 the Malay Archipelago, Polynesia, Australia, and Africa. 

 Vaughan MacCaughey says that it is not very common in 

 Hawaii, but may be found in a few gardens. In the Philip- 

 pines and in Guam it has become spontaneous. 



One West Indian common name of this fruit, custard-apple, 

 is applied in India to A. squamosa, and sometimes in America 

 to A. Cherimola and other species. In India A. retwulata is 

 often termed ramphal (fruit of Rama) . In Mexico the Spanish 

 names are anona and anona Colorado,; the Aztec name, which 

 appears in the early work of Francisco Hernandez, was quauht- 

 zapotl, or tree zapote. In the French colonies the name cachi- 

 man or cachiman cceur-de-bceuf is generally used. In Brazil 

 it is called in Portuguese coraqao de boi. 



