Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
January 1782
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 64v
Additional Source Text:
"Sent me from the Island of St. Thomas in the West Indies under the name of a petrified mancheneil apple."
Notes:
Du Simitière apparently had a marble object carved to resemble the poisonous fruit of the manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), a species of flowering plant in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). The name derives from the Spanish manzanilla ("little apple"), from the superficial resemblance of its fruit and leaves to those of an apple tree.
The donor was from St. Thomas.
