ON THE CULTURE OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF STAR-APPLE. 183 
style, and cupped at the base by the persistent calyx. It abounds in a viscid milk ; 
and the flesh is tolerably juicy and sweet, with something of an astringent, fig-like 
flavour. * 
The Silvery- leaved Star- Apple {Chrysophyllum argenteum). — This kind is 
a native of Martinico, whence it was introduced in 1758. It forms a tree-like 
shrub fifteen or twenty feet high, with wide-spreading, slender branches. The 
leaves are ovate-oblong, falcately acuminated, smooth and shining on the upper 
surface, and clothed with a silvery tomentum beneath. Fruit round, of a dirty- 
purplish blue colour, about the size of an Orleans plum. Pulp blue, soft, juicy, 
and with a pleasant flavour. 
The Glabrous Star- Apple (Chrysophyllum glabrum) — is also a native of 
Martinico, whence it was introduced in 1823. It grows to a spreading shrub, twelve 
or fifteen feet high ; the leaves are about two inches long, ovate-ohlong, and smooth 
on both surfaces. The flowers are white. Fruit elliptical, about the size of an 
olive, smooth, of a purplish-blue. Pulp sweet and clammy. 
The Pitakara, or Roxburgh’s Star-Apple (Chrysophyllum Boxburghii). A 
native of Silhet, where it grows to a middle-sized tree. The leaves are lanceolate- 
acuminated, smooth on both sides, with parallel veins, and three or four inches long. 
The fruit is globose, five-seeded, the size of an Orleans plum, smooth, and when 
ripe of a bright yellow colour. The pulp is firm, sweet and very clammy, but when 
fully ripe is rather insipid ; the natives, however, eat it greedily. 
The Narrow-leaved Star-Apple (Chrysophyllum angustifolium). — A native 
of St. Domingo, where it attains the height of twenty feet. The leaves are about 
the size and shape of those of the privet ; the upper surface dark green, and shining, 
with parallel veins, and the under surface clothed with ferruginous tomentum. The 
fruit is olive-shaped, two-seeded, and irregular at the base. 
The Long-leaved Star-Apple (Chrysophyllum macrophyllum). — A native of 
Sierra Leone, whence it was introduced in 1824. It forms a lofty tree from sixty to 
one hundred feet high. The leaves are long and large, oblong-lanceolate, thickly 
clothed beneath with ferrugineous tomentum. Fruit large. Pulp sweet, clammy, 
and with a rather pleasant flavour. 
Although many of the above Idnds, in addition to their value as fruit-bearers, 
become timber trees, yet their wood is generally porous, and soon perishes if exposed 
to the weather ; the natives, therefore, use it only for in-door work, for wliich it 
answers well. 
All the species and varieties are of the easiest culture. 
The temperature requisite is that of a moderate stove, where they can receive a 
good supply of air and moisture at one season of the year, and partial drought with 
a little bottom-heat at the other. One of our plants of the C. Cainito, at Chatsworth, 
is planted out in the east border of the large conservatory, contiguous to the flue, 
* Hooker, in ^‘Bot. Mag.,” 3303. 
