60 
CULTURE OF THE AKEE TREE. 
(blighia sapida.) 
Many of the tropical fruit-trees are very ornamental, and some of them may, 
no doubt, be grown to a degree of perfection that would render them valuable as an 
addition to our dessert ; of this last kind, perhaps, we might class the Akee Tree, 
(^Blighia sapida). It is a native of the West Indies, where it grows to twenty 
feet and upwards. It has been long an inhabitant of this country, and is yet very 
little known, and found in very few collections. I have never seen the fruit, but 
am told that it possesses a slight acid, and when well ripened is not much in- 
ferior to a Nectarine : it grows to the size of a large apple^ and is of a dull yellow, 
spotted, and streaked with red. The mode of culture most likely to suit it, is as 
follows : — 
1. Pot the plarit in a very rich light loam mixed with about a fourth of very 
rotten horse-dung, and drain well with broken potsherds. 
2. Always cramp the roots in small pots until the plant shows a disposition to 
flower, then re-pot them in a good rich soil and give them plenty of pot room. 
3. Place the plant in a house where the thermometer ranges from sixty to 
eighty degrees, and allow it to be partially shaded from the sun's rays by other 
