192 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



Florida it is often called custard-apple; in the West Indies 

 alligator-apple and cork-wood. While tropical in nature, it 

 withstands a few degrees of frost. It is swamp-loving, as the 

 name here used indicates, and a vigorous grower. The tree is 

 usually small, but sometimes reaches a height of 40 feet. 

 The leaves are smooth, ovate to oblong or elliptic in form, acute 

 to bluntish, glossy green above and paler beneath. The flowers 

 are large, with the outer petals cream-colored, the inner smaller 

 and narrower, whitish outside and blood-red within. The fruit 

 is ovoid or heart-shaped, 2 to 4 inches long, smooth, yellowish 

 when ripe, with soft yellowish flesh. Mexican writers have 

 asserted that the tree is cultivated and the fruit sold in the 

 markets. These statements are due to the confusion of A. 

 glabra with other species of Annona, most probably the smooth- 

 fruited forms of A. Cherimola and A. reticulata. Annona palus- 

 triSy L. and A. laurifolia, Dunal are synonyms of A. glabra, L. 



Wild cherimoya (Annona longiflora, Wats.). This species 

 comes from the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Horticulturally it is 

 not yet well known, but it is said to have been introduced into 

 California. Safford describes it as a shrub or small tree, with 

 leaves resembling those of the true cherimoya but distinguished 

 when mature by being glabrate or glabrescent between the 

 lateral nerves. The flowers are often 2 inches long. The fruit 

 is conical or ovate in form, the surface smooth to rough as in 

 the cherimoya, which in flavor it resembles. 



Mountain soursop (Annona montana, Macf.). This species 

 is native to the West Indies, where it is also known as guanabana 

 cimarrona (Spanish, wild guanabana) and corossolier batard 

 (French) . It is a small forest tree with leaves resembling those 

 of the soursop ; the flowers also resemble those of that species. 

 P. J. Wester, 1 who tested the fruit in the Botanic Garden at 



1 Philippine Agrl. Review, 2, 1916. 



