184 ON THE CULTURE OP THE RAMONTCHI, TOMI-TOM1, AND OTHER 
nature has set the stamp of early fructification, evinced by a peculiarly short-jointed 
character, and by turning brown betimes, together with an early cessation from growth, as 
compared with what is commonly termed watery wood. These are of course mere techni- 
calities, and it is to be regretted that more popular terms do not exist by which to express 
them ; the public mind, however, is fast ripening in these respects, and the day is at 
hand, in the which a due conception of such terms will not be confined to mere 
gardeners ; our horticultural press, taking the form of the times, will shortly render 
all these things perfectly familiar, even to the inhabitants of our busy commercial towns. 
ON THE CULTURE OF THE RAMONTCHI, TOMI-TOMX, AND OTHER 
SPECIES OF FLACOURTIA AS FRUIT-TREES. 
The Ramontchi, or Madagascar Plum-tree, is the Flacourtia Bamontchi of our Botanical 
Catalogues, and a native of Madagascar and the neighbouring Islands, where it grows in 
great abundance, and is called by the natives Ramontchi ; but as the fruit when ripe bears 
so great a resemblance to our purple plum, Europeans generally term it the Madagascar 
Plum-tree. The plant was introduced to British Collections in 1775, but its cultivation 
as a fruiting plant has hitherto been too little regarded to test its value and quality ; indeed 
it has been almost lost to this country till within the last few years, and even now is 
seldom seen, and almost unknown except by name. It is associated with other fruit- 
bearing genera, as Roumea and Oncoba, &c., which with many others form a Natural Order, 
called Flacourtiacece , or Bixads in Lindley’s “Vegetable Kingdom.” 
In its native country it forms a large spreading shrub, growing about 10 feet high. 
The stems and branches are armed with numerous long sharp-pointed thorns. The leaves 
are alternate, simple, feather-nerved. Peduncles axillary, many-flowered. Flowers small 
and inconspicuous, dioecious from abortion, apetalous. Stamineous flowers, stamens 
numerous, densely crowded upon the hemispherical receptacle, and glandless at the base ; 
anthers yellow. Pistilline ones, calyx four to five-cleft, deciduous. Sepals whitish or cream- 
colour. Stigmas four to nine, each furnished with one longitudinal furrow above. Fruit 
baccate, and indehiscent, growing to the size and shape of a small plum, green when 
young, and red when ripening, changing as it advances in ripeness, until when fully 
matured it becomes of a deep purple-violet. The skin is thin, and the flesh of a beautiful 
transparent red, resembling jelly, but about the consistence of that of our common Orleans 
plums ; sweet, but leaving a sharpness in the mouth. In the middle are a dozen or fourteen 
small bony seeds or kernels, which are of a bitterish taste, not much unlike the kernel of a 
ripened Apricot ; the seeds are nearly of the size and shape of Apple pippins, and are covered 
with a brown tender skin or shell. 
This fruit is highly esteemed and universally eaten by the natives, and is also freely 
used by Europeans both in tarts, preserves and dessert. The crops are abundant, and the 
fruiting season protracted, on account of the plants continuing to flower for several months. 
The bushes are also very ornamental, and although thorny, are much cultivated. 
The Tomi-tomi, or Unarmed Flacourtia is the Flacourtia inermis of authors, and a native 
of the Molucca Islands, where it is very extensively cultivated for the sake of its fruit. It 
forms a tree 30 or 40 feet high, without spines. The leaves are elliptical, crenately serrated, 
and shining. The racemes are axillary and short ; the flnwers are hermaphrodite, pale 
yellowish- white. Stamens twenty to thirty. Style five-cleft Berries reddish-purple when 
ripe, with a transparent red flesh, and pleasant but acid flavour. It continues in flower 
and fruit nearly the whole of the year, and was introduced to this country in 1814. 
The Pedda-Canrew, the Flacourtia sapida, is also another very good fruit-bearing 
kind. It is a native of various parts of the East Indies, growing abundantly on 
mountains and in stony places, forming a spreading thorny bush 12 or 14 feet high. 
The fruit are red, and produced in bunches from the axils of the leaves, growing to the 
