ON THE CULTURE OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF STAR-APPLE. 
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rusty tomentuni whilst young, but which passes away as they advance in age. 
Leaves alternate, entire, elliptical, betwixt four and five inches long, acuminated, 
dark green, and smooth above, but thickly clothed beneath, with short, soft, silky 
hairs. Nerves parallel and transverse. Petioles short, clothed with silky hairs 
like the leaves. Flowers small, produced in umbellate fascicles, arising from the 
axils of the leaves, and from the extremities of the young branches. Calyx five- 
parted, rust-coloured, silky. Corolla campanulately-rotate, with a five-parted spreading 
limb, yellowish-white. Stamens five, inserted in the tube of the corolla and opposite 
its segments, smalL Filaments short. Ovary ovate, hairy, ten-celled ; cells one- 
seeded. Style short. Stigma obtuse. Fruit a large, almost globose, ten-celled 
berry; the skin rose-coloured, smooth and shining; the pulp soft, sweet, and 
possessing a pleasant flavour, but rather clammy, and when over-ripe, becoming 
quite insipid. It is, however, much eaten by the natives, and forms one of their 
esteemed fruits. 
Three other varieties besides the rose-coloured are cultivated, which by 
Europeans are considered superior to the species, viz.: — 
The Pueple Cainito (C. Cainito Jamaicense). — The fruit of this kind is purple, 
with a pulp of the same colour, and is more juicy and of a better flavour than 
the species. 
The Blue Cainito (C. Cainito cmruleum). — The fruit is blue, as is also the 
pulp ; and the flavour is fully equal to the last. 
The Cuba Cainito (C. Cainito microphyllum). — This forms only a small bush, 
scarcely exceeding ten feet in height, and often not more than six. The leaves are 
smaller than the species, as is also the fruit ; the flavour, however, is fully equal to 
that of the common kind. 
These four varieties of Cainito, or Common Star- Apple, were introduced in 1737 
by Philip Miller ; but, until the last few years, they were nearly lost from our 
Collections, and those which remained in this country, were retained in our stoves 
chiefly on account of the beauty of their bright and silky foliage, as the flowers are 
very inconspicuous, and but seldom produced ; and the fruit has not been ripened, 
that we are aware of, in any part of Europe. The season for flowering is 
mid-winter. 
Besides the Common Star- Apple, several other species of Chrysophyllum 
produce fruit, which, by judicious cultivation, might become superior even to the 
Cainito. These are— 
The Small-fruited Star-Apple (Chrysophyllum mierocarpum). — A native of 
Hispaniola, where it grows on the banks of rivers, and forms a tree-like shrub 
twenty or more feet high. The leaves are ovate, acute, smooth and shining above, 
but covered beneath with pale silvery down. Corolla white, covered thickly outside 
with whitish silky hairs ; the segments are concave and obtuse. Fruit the size of 
a damson plum, and not much unlike that fruit in form ; pulp very sweet, with a 
delicious flavour. Pedicel fixed obliquely. 
