396 



Pond Apple 



borne on top of the receptacle, each containing a single ovule, and they coalesce 

 in ripening into a compound fruit. 



The generic name is said to be derived from the Malayan. The Soursop 

 (Anona muricata Linnaeus) of the West Indies and tropical America generally, 

 is the type of the genus. 



The Pond apple grows in ponds and swamps 

 in southern Florida, and throughout, the Bahama 

 islands, where it is abundant in wet rocky sink- 

 holes. It sometimes becomes 12 meters high, 

 with a trunk 4 or 5 dm. thick, its base often much 

 swollen and buttressed. The thin reddish brown 

 bark is sKghtly fissured and scaly, the roimd brown 

 twigs smooth, the buds small and pointed. The 

 leaves are thick, oblong or ovate, 8 to 18 cm. long, 

 bright green and somewhat shining on the upper 

 side, paler and dull on the under surface, rather 

 strongly netted-veined, the apex pointed, the base 

 rovmded or cordate, the stout leaf-stalks i to 4 cm. 

 long. The nodding, short-stalked flowers are soli- 

 tary in the axils of the leaves, 2 to 3.5 cm. long, 

 yellowish, the 3 broad short sepals sUghtly imited 

 at the base, about 6 nmi. long, the thick outer petals a little longer than the iimer 

 ones. The fruit is ovoid, 13 cm. long or less, rounded at the top, its base de- 

 pressed; it is yellow, or blotched with brown, the surface obscurely reticulated, 

 the flesh insipid. The seeds are oblong, roimded at the top, i to 2 cm. long, en- 

 closed by the thin aril. 



The wood is brown, weak, soft, with a specific gravity of about 0.50. 



Fig. 350. — Pond Apple. 



