the Guava; a genus of plants belonging to the icosandria clasps, and in the natural method ranking under the 19th order, Hesperidex. See Botany Index.

A decoction of the roots of guava is employed with success in dysenteries: a bath of a decoction of the leaves is said to cure the itch and other cutaneous eruptions. Guayava, or guava, is distinguished from the colour of the pulp into two species, the white and the red; and, from the figure of the fruit, into the round and the pear-fashioned or perfumed guava. The latter has a thicker rind and a more delicate taste than the other. The fruit is about the bigness of a large tennis ball; the rind or skin generally of a russet stained with red. The pulp within the thick rind is of an agreeable flavour, and interspersed with a number of small white seeds. The rind, when stewed, is eaten with milk, and preferred to any other stewed fruit. From the same part is made marmalade; and from the whole fruit is prepared the finest jelly in the world. The fruit is very astringent, and nearly of the same quality with the pomegranate. The seeds are so hard as to resist the effects of the stomachs of animals; so that, when voided with the excrements, they take root, germinate, and produce thriving trees. Whole meadows in the West Indies are covered with guavas, which have been propagated in this manner.