Garcinia
(named in honour of Laurence Garcin, M.D., a French botanist and traveller in India, author of numerous botanical memoirs). SYNS. Cambogia, mangostana, and Oxycarpus. ORD. Guttiferoe. A genus comprising about forty species of stove evergreen fruit-bearing trees. Flowers usually solitary at the tops of the branches. The fruit is very delicious and refreshing. Leaves coriaceous or rarely sub-membranaceous. Garcinias thrive in a peat and loam compost. Cutting of ripened shoots will root, if inserted in sand, under a glass, in strong bottom heat. The species here described are, perhaps, the best known to cultivation.
G. Cambogia. Gamboge. fl. yellow, terminal, solitary. November. fr. About 2in. in diameter drooping, on peduncles 1in. in length. l. elliptic, tapering to both ends, 5in. long. h. 40ft. Branches spreading, opposite. East Indies, 1822. (B. F. S. 85.) G. cornea (horny). fl. pale yellow, scentless, terminal. January and February. Berry nearly round, the size of a medlar, covered with a dark purple juiceless bark. l. opposite, oblong. h 20ft. East Indies, 1823.) G. Cowa (Cowa). fl. yellow, terminal. February. fr. Edible, though not the most palatable. l. broad-lanceolate. h. 60ft. Chittagong, 1822. A middle-sized handsome tree, yielding an inferior kind of gamboge. G. Mangostana.* Mangosteen. fl. red, resembling a single rose, composed of four roundish petals, which are thick at the base, but thinner towards the margins, terminal, solitary. fr. round, about the size of a medium orange; it is esteemed one of the most delicious fruits in the world. l. elliptic-oblong, acuminated, 7in. or 8in. long. h. 20ft. Molucca Islands, 1789. (B. M. 4847.) G. Morella (Morella). fl. yellowish; panicles terminal and lateral. fr. small, edible, in shape and size resembling the Morello Cherry (whence the specific name). l. oblong-elliptic, tapering to both end. h. 30ft. to 50ft. Ceylon, Siam, East Indies, &c. This plant yields the Ceylon gamboges of commerce (B. F. S. 87.)