ions of Tyre; and from the same family of plants rises
the magnificent pitahaya,--"those flowers known for size and effulgence,
which begin to open as the sun declines, and bloom during the night,
shedding a delicious fragrance, and offering their brimful goblets,
filled with nectareous juice, to thousands of moths and other
crepuscular and nocturnal insects," as Gosse describes it.

The splendid mammey apple-tree (Mammea Americana), which bears numbers
of round and heavy fruits, brown outside, and of a golden yellow within,
valued for the marmalades and other delicacies formed from them.

Of the same family as the chirimoya is the guanabana (Anona muricata),
or sour sop, an unattractive name for so delicious a fruit. From it a
cooling drink is made, and ices of fine flavour.

A near relative is the custard apple, filled with a ruddy compounded
substance, which no cook can surpass. As also the rinon (Anona
squamosa), a kidney-like fruit in form, with a custard-like interior.

The superb alligator-pear, more properly called percia gratissima; its
first name given probably from its being indigenous to a country
abounding in saurian reptiles, otherwise it is difficult to account for
its inappropriate designation. It resembles in shape a large pear; but
the interior of its rind is lined with a marrow-like substance of a
yellowish colour, somewhat like butter, and used at the breakfast-table.

Among other products is the tamarind, unrivalled either as regards
beauty of foliage, brilliancy of blossoms, or the delicacy of its
acidulous pulpy pods. In blossom the tree is a lovely object. Amid its
feathery dark green foliage issue, in vast numbers, golden yellow
branches with delicate flowers dazzling to the eye; while its fruits in
a green state form a candied sweetmeat, or when ripe, and made into a
decoction, a refreshing drink for fever-stricken patients.

The inaja-palm, of various species, produces pellucid pods, from one to
two feet in length, containing a row of beans--enveloped in white
cottony pulp--grateful to the taste.

The cocoa-palm, though at a distance from the coast, here flourishes in
great perfection, adding to the splendour of the vegetation, with its
glorious crown of monster leaves; while the plantain and banana are
widely cultivated, a few plants of which are sufficient to supply a
family with bread, vegetables, fruit, and preserves of various kinds.
Humboldt observes that an area planted with