THE CULTIVATED ANONAS. 
115 
apparently not introduced, by the Spaniards, into the Philip- 
pines, where its inferior congeners were established centuries 
ago and where they are perfectly at home. It is true that 
Kamel’s reference in his “Herbarium aliarumque in insula Luzone 
Philippinarum primaria nascentium,”® to “Cherimoia,” may refer 
to this species, but his use of the name does not of necessity apply 
to Anona cherimolia, as he may have referred to some other 
member of the genus. Granting that the species was introduced 
into the Philippines by the early Spanish colonists, it, like the 
avocado, certainly was never widely distributed in the Archipel- 
ago, and failed to persist. The probable explanation of the 
absence of the cherimoya, in many tropical countries, is not that 
it has never been introduced, but that it is unadapted to certain 
climatic conditions, such as are prevalent at low altitudes in the 
Philippines, in Ceylon, and in similar situations elsewhere in the 
tropics. It would seem that it is adapted to subtropical rather 
than to tropical conditions. The species is well established in 
Australia, where its cultivation is very successful in Queensland. 
The cherimoya was introduced into California about forty years 
ago, and into Florida in 1895. An excellent representation of 
twig, leaves and flowers in natural size and colors, and of a fruit 
much reduced, is given by Ehret and Trevv, in their “Plantae 
Selectae,” plate 49, published in 1750. 
Anona squamosa L. (§ Attae) PI. VI, IX, fig. a. 
A tall shrub, three or more meters high, less dilTuse in habit 
than the cherimoya ; young growth finely pubescent ; leaves 
oblong-ovate, 6 to 12 cm long, base rounded, apex acute or obtuse, 
sparsely hairy on both sides, beneath paler green than above, 
thin, malodorous when bruised, petiole 18 mm or more in length. 
Flowers 1 to 3, opposite the leaves, fragrant, although less so 
than those of the cherimoya, pedicel slender, 17 to 52 mm long; 
sepals small; the three exterior petals linear-oblong, 25 to 30 
mm long, blunt, greenish and sparsely pubescent on the outside, 
whitish inside, keeled, concave, with a purplish blotch at the 
base; inner petals inconspicuous; the androecium and gynae- 
cium in this and the following species are similar to those organs 
in the cherimoya. The fruit is irregularly heart-shaped, 7.5 to 
10 cm in diameter, tuberculate, each carpid forpiing a green 
protuberance, yellowish at base, sometimes shaded with pink 
or purple and covered with a whitish bloom ; flesh whitish, sweet 
and delicately flavored, with a slight trace of fiber; seeds dark- 
brown, 15 mm long, 6 to 8 mm broad, smooth. 
"Ray Hist. PI. 3 (1704) App. 51. 
