PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 81 
common article of consumption, I investigated a large number of specimens and 
found the seeds to vary usually in number from 0 to 5. 
Mr. G. N. Collins, who has paid special attention to the fruits from the economic 
standpoint in his travels in Central America and the West Indies, has brought back 
specimens of three types. An ovate and small type (5 to6 cm. long, 4 cm. in diameter) 
seems to be commonest; another, observed in Jamaica, assumes @ more spherical 
shape (diameter about 8 cm.) and is considerably larger; while a third, from Oaxaca 
(Mexico), has just the shape and dimensions (5 cm. high, 8 cm. in diameter) of an 
ordinary apple. 
The naseberry or sapodilla is regarded by many as one of the best tropical American 
fruits. The skin is thin, the meat reddish, somewhat milky, melting, and sweet, 
with a peculiar flavor. If picked at the right time and handled carefully, this fruit 
will keep from 8 to 12 days, and there is no reason why it could not reach our markets. 
Moreover, the broad altitudinal range of the tree above mentioned, that is, between 0 
and about 2,800 meters, leads to the supposition that there are well-differentiated 
and hardy mountain varieties that could be made to grow and, bear fruit farther north 
in the United States than Florida and southern California, where the Cuban and Mex- 
ican kinds have been tried with encouraging results. 
The sapodilla tree has a further importance as being the source of the “chicle’’ or 
chewing gum of commerce. That substance is the condensed latex of the tree and 
is extracted on a large scale in the forests of Tabasco and Chiapas, whence it is shipped, 
mainly to this country. The sapodilla wood is of fine texture, hard, and reddish, 
with darker veins, and is of current use in the building of the native carts. The 
infusion of the bark is sometimes administered as a febrifuge, while the seeds are said 
to be diuretic and very effective also in the cure of certain diseases of the bladder. 
According to other information, however, the first is only a poor substitute for quinine, 
and the use of the seeds can provoke serious accidents. 
On account of the sweetness of its fruits, the sapodilla tree attracts many guests of 
the animal kingdom, such as birds, bats, squirrels, and others. Jacquin gives a lively 
description of the struggles that go on under its dense cover, the frugivorous hokkoes, 
wild turkeys, and other fowls being an easy prey to carnivorous enemies, not excepting’ 
the native hunter. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 46, 47.—PI. 46, from a photograph taken by C. B. Doyle at Calf, Colombia. 
Pl. 47, from photographs taken by Doyle in Washington. The seeds in the lowest row are from the 
tree referred to in footnote 5, page 80. Both natural size. 
Calocarpum mammosum (L.) Pierre in Urban, Symb. Antill. 5: 97. 1904. 
PLates 48-51. FicurRes 83, 84. 
Achras mammosa L. Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 469. 1762. 
Siderorylum sapota Jacq. Enum. Pl. Carib. 15. 1762. 
Lucuma mammosa Gaertn. f. Fruct. & Sem. 3: 129. pl. 203. 1805. 
Lucuma bonplandia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 240. 1818. 
Vitellaria mammosa Radlk. Sitzungsb. Math.-Phys. Akad. Miinchen 12: 296, 316, 
325. 1882. 
Calospermum mammosum Pierre, Notes Bot. Sapot. 11. 1890. 
Achradelpha mammosa Cook, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci. 3: 160. 1913. 
A large tree, 10 to 30 meters high, lactiferous, deciduous, with an erect, usually 
short, trunk, the crown either spreading and rounded-depressed or narrow and elongate. 
Ramification dichotomous. Bark reddish brown, shaggy. Branchlets thick, 
densely tomentose at first, then subglabrous. 
Leaves caducous, petiolate, clustered at the terminal, newest part of the branchlets. 
Petioles 2 to 5 em. long, broad, flattened, and tomentose at the base, more or less 
rounded, subcanaliculate, and more or less hairy toward the blade. Leaf blade obovate 
to oblanceolate, long-cuneate at the base, rounded to acute at the tip, 10 to 30 cm. 
long, 4 to 10 cm. broad, light green above, paler or brownish beneath, quite glabrous 
or slightly pubescent on the costa and primary veins on both sides; margin entire; 
