“The sum total of the facts is altogether in favour of an American origin. The locality where the species usually appears wild is in the forests of Para. Its cultivation is ancient in America, since Oviedo is one of the first authors (1535) who has written about this country. No doubt its cultivation is of ancient date in Asia likewise, and this renders the problem curious. It is not proved, however, that it was anterior to the discovery of America, and it seems to me that a tree of which the fruit is so agreeable would have been more widely diffused in the old world if it had always existed there. Moreover, it would be difficult to explain its cultivation in America in the beginning of the sixteenth century, on the hypothesis of an origin in the old world.” Since I wrote the above, I find the following facts published by different authors:— 1. The argument drawn from the fact that there is no Asiatic species of the genus Anona is stronger than ever. _A. Asiatica_, Linnæus, was based upon errors (see my note in the _Géogr. Bot._, p. 862). _A. obtusifolia_ (Tussac, _Fl. des Antilles_, i. p. 191, pl. 28), cultivated formerly in St. Domingo as of Asiatic origin, is also perhaps founded upon a mistake. I suspect that the drawing represents the flower of one species (_A. muricata_) and the fruit of another (_A. squamosa_). No Anona has been discovered in Asia, but four or five are now known in Africa instead of only one or two,[851] and a larger number than formerly in America. 2. The authors of recent Asiatic floras do not hesitate to consider the Anonæ, particularly _A. squamosa_, which is here and there found apparently wild, as naturalized in the neighbourhood of cultivated ground and of European settlements.[852] 3. In the new African floras already quoted, _A. squamosa_ and the others of which I shall speak presently are always mentioned as cultivated species. 4. McNab, the horticulturist, found _A. squamosa_ in the dry plains of Jamaica,[853] which confirms the assertions of previous authors. Eggers says[854] that the species is common in the thickets of Santa Cruz and Virgin Islands. I do not find that it has been discovered wild in Cuba. 5. On the American continent it is given as cultivated.[855] However, M. André sent me a specimen from a stony district in the Magdalena valley, which appears to belong to this species and to be wild. The fruit is wanting, which renders the matter doubtful. From the note on the ticket, it is a delicious fruit like that of _A. squamosa_. Warming[856] mentions the species as cultivated at Lagoa Santa in Brazil. It appears, therefore, to be cultivated or naturalized from cultivation in Para, Guiana, and New Granada. In fine, it can hardly be doubted, in my opinion, that its original country is America, and in especial the West India Islands. +Sour Sop+—_Anona muricata_, Linnæus.