Vegetables of Ceylon. 321 
lour : the puip is of a softer texture than our apple, and has 
the taste and smell of a rose, from which it derives its name. 
It is a very wholesome fruit, cooling and pleasant, though insi- 
pid. It contains a large soft kernel nearly half the size of the 
fruit. Tliis fruit is implicitly believed by many of the natives 
of Asia to be the fruit which caused Adam to be driven out 
of Paradise. 
The cushoo apple is of a smaller size than the former, soft 
and full of a very harsh astringent juice which puckers up 
the lips when applied to tliem. The nut, which in slifape 
is not unlike a kidney-bean, grows to the end of the apple ; 
and tastes, when roasted, like our chesnuts, but more oily. 
The hatapa somewhat resembles our walnut, but, to my taste, 
has a better flavour. 
The paupa or papaya is of the size of a melon, and has a 
pulp nearly of the same taste and smell, but so soft as to be 
divided with a spoon like pudding. Although it is not a 
fruit of a delicious flavour, yet from its being very wholesome 
and cooling, it is much eaten. In the inside of the pulp there 
is a hollow space which contains a qu^intity of seeds of the 
colour and size of black pepper having exactly the taste of 
water cresses, instead of which I have often used them. 
The custard apple is so called from the pulp having some 
resemblance in taste to custard pudding. The pulp is con- 
tained in a speckled shell like a fir cone, and has a number 
of black seeds mixed with its inside, which is nearly of the 
same consistence as that of the former. 
The tamarind grows in long green pods like those of our 
kidney-beans ; but of a stringy and spongy texture. It con-* 
tains a number of kernels, and is very acid, for which quality 
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