N. O. ANONAOE/E. 
4n 
1 in. long, pubescent on pedicels as long as (lie flowers. 
Exterior Petals 3, narrow-oblong, lanceolate; triquetrous, thick 
and fleshy. 3; interior minute or wanting. Sepals small. 
S tamens indefinite, crowded round a hemispherical torus. Con- 
nective overlapping the anthers. Carpels many, snbeonnate, 
style oblong. Ovule, 1, erect. Ripe carpels confluent into a many- 
celled ovoid or globose many-seeded fruit. Fruit fleshy, areolate, 
2-4 in. diam, juicy with the pleasant and agreeable odour of 
the English Heliotrope. Seeds oblong, brownish-black. 
This is the genuine Custard Apple of India. 
A native of the West Indies, naturalized in India, especially 
the Western Peninsula, and the Dekkan, Bijapur ; in the Madras 
Presidency in the Krishna district. Wild in the old Forts of 
the Dekkan, cultivated as far as Gurdaspnr in the Punjab. 
Parts used : — The fruit (both ripe and unripe) ; leaves, seeds, 
roots. 
Uses :-The ripe fruit is medicinally considered a maturant, 
and when bruised and mixed with salt, is applied to malignant 
tumours to hasten suppuration. The seeds contain an acrid 
principle fatal to insects, aud the dried unripe fruit, powdered 
and mixed with gram flour, is used to destroy vermin. An 
infusion of the leaves is considered eflicaoious in prolapsus ani 
of children. The root is considered a drastic purgative ; natives 
administer it in acute dysentery. Tt is also employed inter- 
nally in depression of spirits and spinal diseases. (T. N. 
Mukerji.) The seeds are a powerful irritant of the conjunctiva. 
Lt. Col. Kirtikar, while in charge of the Thana Central Prison, 
came across a case in which a Life-Convict used the seed 
powder in destroying the cornea of both eyes to produce blind- 
ness for the purpose of avoiding being sent to the Andamans 
to undergo his sentence there. 
The bruised leaves with salt make a cataplasm to induce 
suppuration (Atkinson). 
35. A. reticulata, . Linn, h.f.br.i., i. 78 ; Roxb. 
453. 
Vern : — Lound, Ram-phal (H.) ; Nona (Beng.) ; Com (Santal) ; 
