PSIDIUM. 
265 
100. p. 121 (upper spec.) ; 235. p. 36 ; 258. p. 29 ; 297. p. 57 ; 
315. p. 81. — Tr. cult. Mad. r eg. 1, ccc. Gardens everywhere be- 
low 1000 ft. and occasionally a straggler from them in waste 
rocky ground in the neighbourhood of Funchal. FI. June, July; 
fr. Nov. -March. — A stout low stiff or stunted-looking tr. 10- 
20 ft. high, with a thick short oblique or crooked torose re- 
markably smooth pale fawn-coloured or reddish st. and sturdy 
crooked short stout stiff irregular mostly upright or at least 
not loosely declining branches. Bark very smooth and fine 
pale reddish-cinnamon, deciduous like that of the Plane ( Fla - 
tanus). L. stiff but not coriaceous, very shortly stalked, 4 or 
5 in. long, 2-2| broad, at first subacute but soon becoming 
obtuse or truncate at each end, rugose with strong equidistant 
regular straight parallel side-ribs, rather dull dark gr. above, 
pale and like the petioles and ped. finely and shortly downy or 
velvety more or less beneath. Ped. axillary solitary very shorty 
rarely more than 1-fl. FI. w. like those of common Myrtle but 
stiffer and larger. Fr. 1|-2| in. in diam., mostly globose or 
globosely ovoid, very rarely turbinate or shortly and thickly 
pyriform like a Bergamot pear, and though sometimes a little 
flattish at the poles, I have never seen it depressedly spherical 
as in Bot. Beg. 1. 1079 ; it is flatly umbilicate at top and crowned 
with some at least of the somewhat enlarged persistent sep. and 
covered like an apple with a very thin smooth inseparable skin 
of a uniform bright golden-y. ; within it is more or less deep 
fleshy-pink or salmon-colour, sometimes quite pale, of a soft 
melting fleshy rather than pulpy consistence and with a pecu- 
liar foxy smell but agreeable fresh sweetish taste, not how- 
ever at first relished by most people. Seeds numerous flat- 
tened subreniform or roundish-obovate very hard and bony 
pale straw-colour slightly mucilaginous. — The fr. makes excel- 
lent Guava-jellv, but the process requires considerable care and 
nicety, the syrup in boiling passing very rapidly from a too 
liquid into a too stiff or tough consistence. 
The Linnsean names of this and the following sp. are unfor- 
tunate, leading to the notion of a pear-like shape being the 
ordinary or distinctive instead of a merely rare and casual form 
of the fr. in the common garden Guava. Thus I have myself 
unjustly criticised Holl for referring the “ apple-shaped ” Mad. 
Guava of his List (J. of Bot. i. 21, 41) to “ P. pyrifei'um L.” 
ttt2. P. POMIFERUM L. Red or Wild Guava. 
Shr. or subarborescent, with straight subelongate or slender 
loose drooping or declining branches , the younger square and 
finely downy or velvety-pubescent ; 1. distichous elliptic-o\Ao\\g 
or lanceolate-oblong aciitc or pointed at each end , more than 
o 2 
