[346] The pepino (a cucurbitacea) is grown in great abundance in the fields. The plant is only a foot and a half high, and it creeps on the ground. The fruit is from four to five inches long, cylindrical, and somewhat pointed at both ends. The husk is of a yellowish green colour, with long rose coloured stripes. The edible part is solid, juicy, and well flavoured, but very indigestible. Tschudi, p. 192.
[347] Psidium guayava Raddi.
[348] Inga spectabilis Willd.
[349] Persea gratissima R. P. See note at p. 16.
[350] The guanavana is called sour sop in the West Indies (Anona muricata Lin.), where Cieza de Leon must have seen it. It has long been naturalized in India, as well as the A. squamosa (custard apple) and A. reticulata (sweet sop), and on occasions of famine these fruits have literally proved the staff of life to the natives in some parts of the country. (Drury’s Useful Plants of India, p. 41.)
But the fruit which Cieza de Leon here mistakes for the guanavana or sour sop is, no doubt, the delicious chirimoya (Anona cherimolia Mill.) Von Tschudi says of it: “It would certainly be difficult to name any fruit possessing a more exquisite flavour. The fruit is of a roundish form, somewhat pyramidal or heart-shaped, the broad base uniting with the stem. Externally it is green, covered with small knobs and scales. The skin is rather thick and tough. Internally the fruit is snow-white and juicy, and provided with a number of black seeds. The taste is incomparable. Both the fruit and flowers of the chirimoya emit a fine fragrance. The tree which bears this finest of all fruits is from fifteen to twenty feet high.” Mrs. Clements Markham introduced the cultivation of this delicious fruit into Southern India in 1861.
[351] Chrysophillum Caimito Lin., or star apple.
[352] The name for the ordinary Peruvian dog, in Quichua, is allco (Canis Ingæ).
[353] The algaroba or guaranga (Prosopis horrida, Willd). A tree the bean of which furnishes food for mules, donkeys, and goats.
[354] The dulces or preserves of Peru are still the most delicious in the world, especially those made at Cuzco. No confectionary in London or Paris can be compared with them.