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the plant was cultivated in the hothouse. The present indi- 
vidual belonged to the fertile-flowered side of the species, 
which is dioicous. The flowers of the barren side of the 
species are very different, but these we have-not yet met 
with. The genus is placed, by Jussieu, as an anomalous 
associate among the Cucurbitacee. It has a superior ger- 
men, instead of the inferior one of the genuine members of 
the order. 
The following account of the species is borrowed from 
that by Sir J. Smith in Rees’s Cyclopedia. 
“Somewhat the habit of a Palm. Root perpendi- 
cular, whitish, spongy, of a disagreeable taste and smell. 
Stem twenty feet high, a foot thick, naked almost to 
the top, marked almost its whole length with the scars 
of fallen leaves, of a tender substance like that of the 
Banana, solid towards the base, hollow in its upper part. 
Leaves on petioles near two feet long, the lower ones 
almost horizontal, upper ones erect, deeply divided into 
7, 9, or 11 sinuated gashed lobes, alternate, near to- 
gether. Flowers axillary, white, sweet-scented; barren 
ones in slender, pendulous racemes, 2 or 3 feet long; 
pedicles short; fertile-flowered ones numerous on short 
simple peduncles. Fruit about the size of a small Melon; 
various in its form, sometimes angular and_ flattened 
‘at both ends, sometimes oval or round, and sometimes 
pyramidal, yellow when ripe, containing a yellow suc- 
culent pulp of a sweetish taste and aromatic smell. It is 
seldom eaten raw, but, when boiled, is esteemed a whole~ 
some sauce to any kind of fresh meat. It is also sometimes 
pickled in vinegar, and is frequently preserved in sugar, and 
sent to Europe with other tropical sweetmeats. When 
ripened in our stoves, it does not acquire its proper flavour, 
and is even said by Miller to be detestable. The whole 
plant abounds with a milky acrid juice. Barren flowers are 
occasionally found on the fertile-flowered plants, and vice 
versd. A native of both the East and West Indies. The 
Annona triloba, trifid Custard-Apple, is also called the 
Papaw-Tree in the southern states of North America.” 
Grown in 1690, at the Royal Garden at Hampton 
Court. 
Said by Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland to be culti- 
vated over the whole of South America. 
