GUAVA. 
Natural Order , Myrtaceje. Linnsean Classification , 
IcOSANBRIA, MONOGYNIA. 
PSIDIUM,t (Linn.) 
Calyx - tube (or external germ) ellipsoid or obovate, often con- 
tracted at the summit; the border at first undivided and ovate 
while in flower, afterwards 1 to 5-cleft. Petals 5. Stamens 
very numerous, distinct. Style filiform: stigma capitate. 
The ovary with from 5 to 20 cells, some of them abortive, 
each cell subdivided by the interposition of a placenta resem- 
bling a dissepiment. Ovules numerous, horizontal. Fruit 
a many-seeded berry, coated with the adhering tube of the 
calyx and crowned by its persisting lobes. The seeds scatter- 
ed through the pulp in the ripe berry, having a bony or 
hard shell. The embryo curved in a half circle round the 
protruded base of the testa. Cotyledones minute, the radicle 
rather long. 
Trees or shrubs chiefly indigenous to the intertropical regions 
of America, with opposite, entire, impunctate, feather-nerved 
leaves. Peduncles axillary, 1 to 3 flowered, each flower with a 
pair of bractes. The flowers white. 
FLORIDA GUAVA. 
PSIDIUM buxifolium, glabrum , ramulis teretibus , foliis 
parvulis coriaceis cuneato-obovatis obtusis subsessilibus 
margine revolutis , pedunculis solitariis brevissimis unijlo- 
ris,fructu pyriformi. 
For a knowledge of this interesting tree or shrub we 
t One of the Greek names for the Pomegranate. Guava is a 
corruption of the American aboriginal name of Guay aba. 
