ANONACE^ 



355 



glandular-punctate, persistent or tardily deciduous. Flowers nodding on bracted pedicels; 

 calyx small, 3-lobed, green, deciduous; petals 6 in 2 series, valvate in the bud, hypogynous, 

 sessile, ovate, concave, 3-angled at apex, thick and fleshy, white or yellow, the exterior al- 

 ternate with the lobes of the calyx, those of the inner row often much smaller than those of 

 the outer row; stamens club-shaped, densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter 

 than the fleshy connective; anther-cells confluent; pistils sessile on the receptacle, free or 

 united; ovary 1-celled; style sessile or slightly stipitate, oblong, stigmatic on the inner 

 face; ovule 1, erect; raphe ventral. Fruit compound, many-celled, fleshy, ovoid or globose, 

 many-seeded. Seeds ovoid to ellipsoidal; cotyledons appressed. 



Of the fifty species of Anona widely distributed in the tropics of the two worlds, a single 

 species reaches the coast of southern Florida. Of exotic species, Anona muricata L., the 

 Soursop and Anona reticulata L., of the West Indies, and Anona Cherimolia Mill., of west- 

 ern tropical America, are now occasionally cultivated as fruit-trees in Florida. 



Anona is the name given by early authors to the Soursop. 



1. Anona glabra L. Pond Apple. 

 Anona palustris Small, not L. 



Leaves elliptic or oblong, acute, tapering or rounded at base, bright green on the upper, 

 paler on the lower surface, coriaceous, 3'-5' long, l|'-2' wide, with a prominent midrib; 



Fig. 320 



deciduous late in the winter; petioles, stout \' in length. Flowers nodding on short stout 

 pedicels thickened at the ends, opening in April from an ovoid 3-angled bud; divisions 

 of the calyx broad-ovate, acute; petals connivent, acute, concave, pale yellow or dirty 

 white, those of the outer row marked on the inner surface near the base by a bright red spot, 

 and broader and somewhat longer than those of the inner row. Fruit ripening in No- 

 vember, broadly ovate, truncate or depressed at base, rounded at apex, 3'-5' long, 2'-3' 

 broad, light green when fully grown, becoming yellow and often marked by numerous dark 

 brown blotches when fully ripe, with a thick elongate fibrous torus and light green slightly 

 aromatic insipid flesh of no comestible value; seeds \' long, slightly obovoid, turgid, 

 rounded at the ends, their margins contracted into a narrow wing formed by the thickening 

 of the outer coat. 



A tree, 40-50 high, with a short trunk often 18' in diameter above the swell of the thick- 

 ened tapering base sometimes enlarged into spreading buttresses, stout wide-spreading 

 often contorted branches, slender branchlets brown or yellow during their first season, be- 



