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'THE ORIGIN OF ANONAS. ANON A SQUAMOSA, L.; ANON A 

 RETICULATA, L. 



BY 



Colonel Fernando Leal. 



{Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 25$ January 1900.) 



Anona squamosa, L, ; Anona reticulata, L. — These two Anonaceae, beside 



"5 kinds of Uvariae, the miryo (Polynllhia fragrant) and the sajeri {Bocayea 



Dahellii) exist in Portuguese India, where the first two grow as indigenous. 



In this article I shall discuss two points: (1) determine the origin of these 



plants, (2) prove that they are not Indian and show who introduced them 



; into India. The former question has been for more than 3 centuries 



- discussed by many botanists and travellers and still remains unsettled. I shall 



divide the enquiry into three parts. In the first I shall place before the reader 



what Yule and Burnell, the erudite authors of a well-known glossary, and 



others quoted by them have to say on the subject ; secondly, the opinion of the 



learned botanist A. deCandolle ; finally, I shall give my own opinion and 



. observations. 



I.— The article of Yule and Burnell runs thus : — 



" Custard Apples. — The name in India of a fruit {Anona squamosa ,L.) original- 

 ity introduced from S. America, but which spread over India during the 10th 

 . century. Its commonest name in Hindustani is sharifa, i.e., ' noble ', but it is also 

 • called sitaphal, i.e., ' the fruit of Sita,' whilst another Anona (bullock's heart), 

 A. reticulata, L., the custard apple of the W. Indies, where both names are 

 applied to it, is called in the south by the name of her husband 'Rama.' And 

 the Sitaphal and Ramphal have become the subject of Hindu legends (see 

 Forbes Or. Mem. iii, 410.). The fruit is called in Chinese Fan-U-chi, i.e., foreign 

 . leeches. 



" A curious controversy has arisen from time to time as to whether this fruit 

 and its congeners were really imported from the New "World, or were indi- 

 genous in 'India. They are not mentioned among Indian fruits by Baber 

 (A.D. 1530), but the translation of the Ain (c. 1500) by Prof. Blochmanu 

 contains among ' the sweet fruits of Hindustan ' Custard Apple (p. 60). On 

 referring to the original however the word is Saddap'hal (fructus perennis),* 

 Hind term for which Shakespear gives many applications, not one of them 

 the Anona. The bel is one (Aegle marmelos) and seems as probable as any (see 

 Bael). The Custard Apple is not mentioned by Garcia da Orta (1563), 

 Linschoten (1597), or even by P. del la Valle (1024). It is not in Bontius (1031) 

 •nor hvPiso's commentary on Bontius (1058), but it is described as an American 

 product in the West Indian part of Piso's book, under the Brazilian name 

 Araticu. Two species are described as common by P. Vincenzo Maria, whose 

 b:>ok was published in 1672. Both the Custard Apple and the sweet-sop are 

 t fruits now geuerally diffused in India ; but of their having been imported 

 from the New World, the name Anona, which we find in Oviedo to have 



