PLANTS CULTIVATED FOE THEIR FRUITS. 285 



the naturalization in the Canaries is perhaps not more 

 ancient than the Phoenician voyages. 



No leaf of the olive has hitherto been found in the 

 tufa of the south of France, of Tuscany, and Sicily, where 

 the laurel, the myrtle, and other shrubs now existing 

 have been discovered. This is an indication, until the 

 contrary is proved, of a subsequent naturalization. 



The olive thrives in dry climates like that of Syria 

 and Assyria. It succeeds at the Cape, in parts of America, 

 in Australia, and doubtless it will become wild in these 

 places when it has been more generally planted. Its 

 slow growth, the necessity of grafting or of choosing the 

 shoots of good varieties, and especially the concurrence 

 of other oil-producing species, have hitherto impeded its 

 extension ; but a tree which produces in an ungrateful 

 soil should not be indefinitely neglected. Even in the 

 old world, where it has existed for so many thousands 

 of years, its productiveness might be doubled by taking 

 the trouble to graft on wild trees, as the French have 

 done in Algeria. 



Star Apple — Chrysophyllum Cainito, Linnaeus. 



The star apple belongs to the family of the Sapotacese, 

 It yields a fruit valued in tropical America, though 

 Europeans do not care miich for it. I do not find that 

 any pains have been taken to introduce it into the colonies 

 of Asia or Africa. Tussac gives a good illustration of it 

 in his Flore des Antilles, vol. ii. pi. 9. 



Seemann ^ saw the star apple wild in several places 

 in the Isthmus of Panama. De Tussac, a San Domingo 

 colonist, considered it wild in the forests of the West 

 India Islands, and Grisebach ^ says it is both wild and 

 cultivated in Jamaica, San Domingo, Antigua, and Tri- 

 nidad. Sloane considered it had escaped from cultivation 

 in Jamaica, and Jacquin says vaguely, "Inhabits Mar- 

 tinique and San Domingo." * 



Caimito, or Abi — Lucuma Cainito, Alph. de CandoUe. 



This Peruvian Caimito must not be confounded with 



' Seemann, Bot. of the Herald., p. 166. 



* Grisebach, Mora of Brit. W. Ind. Isl., p. 398. 



* Sloane, Jamaica, ii. p. 170 ; Jaoquin, Amer., p. 53. 



