1770 FRUITS 393 



Water melons (Cucurbita citrullus) are plentiful and good, as 

 are also (11) pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo), which are certainly 

 almost or quite the most useful fruit which can be carried 

 to sea, keeping without any care for several months, and 

 making, with sugar and lemon-juice, a pie hardly to be dis- 

 tinguished from apple-pie, or with pepper and salt, a substi- 

 tute for turnips not to be despised. (12) Papaws (Oarica 

 papaia) : this fruit when ripe is full of seeds, and almost with- 

 out flavour ; but while green, if pared, the core taken out, and 

 boiled, is also as good or better than turnips. (13) Guava 

 (Psidium pomiferwm) is a fruit praised much by the inhabit- 

 ants of our West Indies, who, I suppose, have a better sort 

 than we met with here, where the smell of them alone was 

 so abominably strong, that Dr. Solander, whose stomach is 

 very delicate, could not bear them even in the room, nor did 

 their taste make amends, partaking much of the goatish 

 rankness of their smell. Baked in pies, however, they lost 

 much of this rankness, and we, less nice, ate them very well. 

 (14) Sweet sop (Annona squamosa), also a West Indian fruit, 

 is nothing but a vast quantity of large kernels, from which 

 a small proportion of very sweet pulp, almost totally devoid 

 of flavour, may be sucked. (15) Custard apple (Annona 

 reticulata) is likewise common to our West Indies, where it 

 has got its name, which well enough expresses its qualities ; 

 for certainly it is as like a custard, and a good one too, as 

 can be imagined. (16) Casshew apple (Anacardium occi- 

 dentale) is seldom or never eaten on account of its astrin- 

 gency ; the nut which grows on the top of it is well known 

 in Europe, where it is brought from the West Indies. (17) 

 Cocoanut (Cocos nucifera) is well known everywhere between 

 the tropics ; of it are infinite different sorts : the best we 

 met with for drinking is called calappa edjou, and easily 

 known by the redness of the flesh between the skin and the 

 shell. 



(18) Mangostan (Grarcinia mangostana). As this, and some 

 more, are fruits peculiar to the East Indies, I shall give short 

 descriptions of them. This is about the size of a crab apple, 

 and of a deep red wine colour : at the top of it is a mark 



