ANONA RETICULATA 21 



delicately perfumed pulp has a delicious flavor. The unripe 

 fruit is exceedingly astringent. The fermented juice of the 

 ripe pulp is used in certain parts of America to prepare a pop- 

 ular drink. The powdered seeds make a useful parasiticide 

 especially when used on the scalp, but it is necessary to avoid 

 getting any of the drug in the eyes on account of its irrritant 

 effect. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. Tree 8 or 9 high with leaves 

 alternate, oblong, the edges pubescent. Flowers greenish-yel- 

 low, axillary, solitary ; peduncle not curved. Petals 6, conver- 

 gent. Stamens crowded, indefinite. Fruit fleshy, covered with 

 scales or rather rounded tubercles ; beneath is the white and 

 fragment pulp, covering the long-oval seeds. 



A. reticulata, L. 



NOM. VULG. Anonas, Sp.-Fil. 



USES. The fruit of this species is neither as much prized 

 nor as abundant in the Philippines as that of the ates. When 

 unripe it possesses the same properties as the latter. The 

 large proportion of tannin which both species contain in their 

 unripe state, makes them very useful in treating diarrhoea and 

 dysentery. They are administered in the form of a decoction, 

 by enema. The sap of the trunk is very irritating. The roots 

 are used by the American Indians to treat epilepsy. Lemon 

 juice is the antidote for the sap of this species. 



I wish to call attention to the similarity of the common 

 name of this plant to another entirely distinct species commonly 

 used in the Tagalo therapeutics ; namely, the anonag (Cordia), 

 with which it must not be confused. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. Tree 10 high with leaves 

 lanceolate, pubescent. Flowers in a sort of umbel. Corolla 

 like that of A. squamosa. Fruit without the plainly visible 

 tubercles of the foregoing species, their presence being merely 

 suggested by a sort of net traced on the surface. 



