Eugenia.] Myrtacece. 167 



broadly obovate, tomentose on the back, spreading or re- 

 flexed ; fruit nearly globular, capped with cal.-segm., tomen- 

 tose, soft, 3-celled, with a double row of seeds in each cell ; 

 seed triangular-reniform. 



Upper montane zone ; common. Fl. April-July; pet. white, tinged 

 outside with purplish-pink, fil. flesh-coloured, darker at base. 



Also in S. India, Malaya, and China. 



The fruit is edible and pleasant. I have heard it called ' wild guava ' 

 by the English at Nuwara Eliya ; in the Nilgiris it goes by the name of 

 ' Hill Gooseberry.' Moon gives the S. name ' Sudu-kotala ; ' his locality 

 is Uva. 



At Malacca I found this abundantly on the sandy seashore, but in 

 Ceylon it is entirely a montane plant. 



Psidium Guyana, L. The Guava must have very quickly become 

 naturalised here. There are specimens in Hermann's Herbarium, and he 

 expressly states (Mus. 3) that it was brought by the Portuguese. There 

 is no true Singhalese name, ' Pera,' the name usually employed, being 

 Portuguese for Pear. P. fiumilum, Vahl, Symb. ii. 56, is based on 

 Ceylon specimens collected by Koenig. The Guava is native in Mexico, 

 and perhaps other parts of Trop. America, but has now all the look of a 

 wild plant in Ceylon. 



2. EUGENIA,* L. 



Trees or shrubs, 1. opp., entire, with a more or less con- 

 spicuous marginal vein, usually gland-dotted, without stip., 

 fl. in terminal or axillary paniculate cymes or solitary in axils 

 of 1. or scales below the 1., often on suppressed branchlets, 

 thus appearing to be fasciculate or racemose ; cal.-tube from 

 cup-shaped to tubular, adnate to ov. and sometimes produced 

 beyond it, segm. 4 (rarely 5) ; pet. 4 (rarely 5 or more), either 

 distinct and spreading or connate into a cap (calyptrate) 

 which falls off on expansion of fl.; stam. indef., usually quite 

 distinct, in many rows, anth. small, versatile ; ov. inferior, 

 2-celled with several ovules in each cell, style simple ; fruit 

 usually a juicy berry, rarely dry, globular or ovoid, crowned 

 with persistent cal.-limb or segm.; seeds 1 or very few, 

 embryo with thick often connate cotyledons, no endosperm. — 

 Sp. about 700; 131 in Fl. B. Tnd. 



Our largest genus (except Cyficrus), forming a main constituent of the 

 forest of the moist and montane regions, to which the brilliant pink, 

 orangf: or crimson tints of the young foliage are a great ornament. No 

 ,.m 29 of our species arc endemic. 



ii by Micheli in 1728, in honour of the illustrious Prince Eugene 

 ivoy, to tli': plant now called E. Michelii, Lam. 



