VOL. XXXVIII.] rHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ()35 



and size of an almond stripped of its shell, having a protuberance on one side, 

 which is nothing else but its navel. This grain is covered with two small skins, 

 the outermost of which serves for a basis to the filaments and membranes ot 

 which the pulp is composed. The substance of these grains comes very near 

 to that of chestnuts, as to their consistency, colour, and astringent quality. 

 The calix always remains adhering to the fruit, to which it serves for an orna- 

 ment, and when half dried up, it is of the colour of the pomegranate shell on 

 the outside. It covers about a dth part of the circumference of the fruit. 



Remarks. — Garcias, Clusius, and Bontius, are the first authors who have 

 mentioned the mangostans ; but they have left us only indifferent descriptions, 

 and those so short, that it is not possible to form from them a sufficient idea for 

 discovering its characters. The first of those authors was ill informed, when 

 he was told the fruit was yellow. Clusius has spoken of it under two different 

 names, without apprehending that it was one and the same plant. The figure 

 which he has given of the fruit, and which he calls arbor peregrina aurantio 

 simili fructu, though ill done, yet represents it enough to know it again. If in 

 that figure the fruit appears little in regard to the twig which supports it, this 

 can be for no other reason, but because he received from the Indies some of 

 that fruit which had been gathered before its state of perfection, from which he 

 drew his figure. And hence it is, that the fruit being shrunk up and iiDperfect, 

 he found nothing in it but a few shrivelled grains, not much larger than those 

 of a fig. 



It is surprising however, that the most delicious fruit of all the Indies, and 

 which yields to none of the best in Europe, is that which of all has been 

 hitherto least known. But as I have often eaten of it, and found it as excellent 

 as it is reputed in the countries where it is cultivated, I resolved to examine its 

 genus, to settle its characters, and to give a description of it, which might 

 make it better known for the future to botanists, and other curious persons. 



This tree originally grows in the Molucca islands; but for some years past it 

 has been transplanted into the Isle of Java, and some few at Malacca, in which 

 places it thrives very well. Its tuft is so fine, so regular, so equal, and the ap- 

 pearance of its leaves so beautiful, that it is at present considered at Batavia as 

 the most proper for adorning a garden, and affording an agreeable shade; yet 

 there have been but few Europeans in the Indies who have used it for this pur- 

 pose, because they were unacquainted with it. They employed other trees, 

 which did not near come up to it for usefulness and beauty. 



Travellers, who mention its fruit, always speak of it with great encomiums. 

 Linschooten is the only one who, after having given a description of several 

 Indian fruits in his own way, thought it needless to describe the mangostans, .^s 



4 M 2 



