73 

 Leaves 9-12 by 3 1/2 in,, glossy on both surfaces, dots incon- 

 spiouous ; nerves indistinct above, the primary ones fev/, 

 prominent beneath and uniting more or less distinctly within 

 the margin, soraetiraes in dotible looping ; petiole stout, 

 channelled above, 1/2 to I/2 in. Plowers large and handsome. 

 Calyx tube 3/4 in,, lobes unequal, rounded, with membranous 

 edges, the large pair 3/8 in. long. Petals large, suborbicu- 

 lar, glandular. Stamens numerous about 1 in, in length. 

 Style long, persistent, nearly equalling the stamens. In a 

 cultivated specimen from Chittagong the leaves are distinctly 

 pel luo id-penetrate , with large glands. 



The fruit is of white color, pear shaped and of a highly 

 polished siarface. It is juicy, cooling, and of an agreeable 

 vinoiis flavor and smell, the latter partaking but in a very 

 s^-ight degree, of the rose perfvime by the Eugenia Jambos, or 

 Rose apple. It forms part of the usual dessert at European 

 tables ; it is also stewed or baked after the manner of pears 

 in Etirope, and occasionally preserved as a sweet meat. In 

 order to give it a pink or deeper red color, to resemble baked 

 beans, Geylonese cooks employ the petals of the shoe flower 

 (Hybiscus rosa Sinensis, var, duplex). The large bats called 

 flying foxes (Vespertilis vampyrus , L,) are extremely partial 

 to the fruit ; and if the Geylonese did not in some measure 

 provide against the ir night attacks, by stretching lines from 

 branch to branch, and suspending a bell therefrom, these animals 

 which generally fly in flocks, would devour the produce of a 

 large tree in the course of a night. The tree attains the 



