PITTIER—-PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 79 
Flowers pediceled, single in the axils of the leaves at the ends of the branchlets. 
Pedicels 1 to 1.5 cm. long, more or less covered with filmy pubescence. Sepals 6, 
seldom 8, ovate-acuminate, 9 mm. long, 5 mm. broad, densely velvety-hairy except 
at the base inside, the exterior ones more or less valvate, the interior narrower at the 
base and apart from each other. Corolla white, glabrous, tubular, urceolate or cam- 
panulate, about 10 mm. long and lobulate at the top; lobules about 2.5 mm. deep, 
ovate, the margin more or less irregularly sinuate and coarsely denticulate at tip. 
Stamens 6, opposite the lobules of the corolla; filaments short (about 1 mm. long), 
broad at the base, inflexed and more slender at tip, inserted on the corolla at about 
6 mm. from the base; anthers basifix, lanceolate-acuminate, cordate at base, extrorse, 
with longitudinal dehiscence. Staminodes6, petaloid, of the same length as the lobules 
of the corolla and with a more or less sinuate margin. Pistil 10 to 11 mm. long, clavi- 
form and stiff; ovary hairy, 10 to 12-celled, each cell 1-ovulate; style smooth, obscurely 
lobulate and hairy at tip. 
Fruit a berry of variable form and size, crowned by the remnants of the persistent 
stigma and with a thick, verrucose pedicel. Skin thin, brown ferruginous, more or 
less smooth or scaly. Mesocarp fleshy, succulent, containing usually from 0 to 5 and 
very seldom 10 to 12 seeds. Seeds brown or black, smooth and shiny, more or less 
flattened laterally, oblique and obovate, with a narrow cicatricula extending from the 
lower end to about the middle of the ventral side, where the foramen is usually marked 
by a more or less pronounced rostrum. Albumen abundant; embryo at the lower 
part of the seed. 
Common NAMES: West Indies, sapodilla tree, naseberry tree (English). Danish West 
Indies, mispelboom (Dutch); Breiapfelbaum (German). French West Indies, sapotil- 
lier (French). Porto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Hon- 
duras, Nicaragua, Salvador, nispero (Spanish). Cuba, zapote (Spanish). Mexico, 
Guatemala, zapote chico, chico, chicozapote (Spanish). Ecuador, ntspero quitense (Span- 
ish). Yucatan, ya (Maya). El Salvador, muyozapot (Nahuatl). Mexico, tzicozapotl 
(Nahuatl). Costa Rica koréb (Brunka). Bluefield, Nicaragua, ibén (Misquito). Vera- 
paz, Guatemala, muy (Kekchi and Pokomchf). 
The sapodilla tree is certainly indigenous in Mexico south of the Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec or of a parallel a, little farther north, in Guatemala, and possibly in Salvador 
and northern Honduras. It is especially abundant in the lowlands of Tabasco 
and Chiapas and the western part of Yucatan, where lie the principal centers of 
production of the chicle gum. Farther north, as well as in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, 
Panama, and the West Indies, it seems to appear only as a cultivated tree. Hum- 
boldt, in referring to it, says, ‘‘Crescit et colitur prope Cumana, Caracas, etc.”?! It 
isalso reported by Planchon *as being abundant in the forests of Venezuela and J: amaica, 
and from my own recent observations I feel also inclined to believe it a native of the 
former country, as well as of Colombia. \ 
It was made known from Nicaragua by Oviedo,? who called it the best of all fruits 
and expressly mentions that it was “in the power of the Indians of the Chorotegan 
stock (esta fructa estA en poder de los indios de la lengua de los chorotegas), who are 
known to have migrated from the North, following the coast of the Pacific Ocean as 
far as Costa Rica. On the eastern seaboard of this last country, however, it is posi- 
tively said to have been brought from Jamaica in recent times. There do not seem 
to be any available data as to its introduction into other countries of Tropical America. 
In Ecuador it was well known in Velasco’s time as a specialty of Quito. We have 
1H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 8: 239. 1818. 
? Planchon, L. Produits des Sapotées 82. 1888. 
* Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernandez de. Historia general y natural de las Indias 
308. pl. 1. 1851. 
* Velasco, J. Historia del Reino de Quito 63. pl. 1. 1844. 
