258
BOTANY.
oblong, and about four inches in length ; the outer covering is yellow, and the flavour something like that of an over-ripe apple. When cut longitudinally, a representation of the crucifixion of our Saviour is said to be perceived, but this, I think, is a vagary of the imagination—at least, I never could find anythingof the sort, although I have cut many bananas. The CUSTARD APPLE, annona reticulata, is a genus of the polygynia order, class polyandria. This tree rises to about the height of a common apple. The cup of the flower is three-leaved, from whence start six petals of the heartshaped kind, and antherae are numerous. The pointai becomes a large roundish fruit, of a pulpy consistence, and containing a great number of black seeds ; it is not held in much repute, and is scarcely eaten except by the negroes, although Ligon speaks of it as being very delicious. STAR-APPLE, chrysophyllum cainito, belongs to the monogynia order, and petandria class of plants. It rises to the height of thirty-five or forty feet, with a smooth straight trunk, from which shoot several branches at regular distances. The foliage is of a deep green on the upper side, with the underneath of a russet colour. The flower is campaniform, divided into ten segments, but of no great beauty ; from the calyx rises the pointai, which afterwards becomes the fruit, of a globular shape, and divided into ten cells, in each of which is a flattish glossy seed. It derives its name from its internal arrangement, which, when cut transversely, presents the form of a star. PAPAW, carica papaya, a genus of the decandria order, class diœcia. The trunk rises in a simple hollow stem, marked in lozenges, to the height of eighteen or twenty feet; the trees are male and female ; the leaves are large, and divided into several lobes, and come out upon very long, hollow footstalks, from the acros or summit of the tree. The male flowers are tubelous, and divided into five segments ; the calyx small, and the filaments short and long alternately . The colour is a bright primrose, and, seated as they are upon their pale green flower-stalk, they present a very beautiful