84 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
appropriate selection and culture. That same mesocarp can also be turned into an 
excellent marmalade, or into jelly, and although the fruit does not yet seem to have met 
with any great favor in our markets, it is not altogether without importance among 
tropical fruits. 
The seed contains a large, oily almond, which has a strong smell and a bitter taste. 
According to de la Maza! it has stupefying properties. Grosourdy calls it a diuretic, 
and in Costa Rica the oil is used in the treatment of persistent catarrhal complaints, 
while the whole almond, finely ground, is made into an exquisite confection.? More- 
over, as seen above, it seems to have been extensively used, and is still used on a 
small scale, in conjunction with cacao, in the preparation of the current beverage 
of the natives of Central America. It is called ‘‘sapuyul” (Nahuatl tzap-ullul, i. e., 
zapote resin or gum?). According to Mr. G. N. Collins (MS. notes), the Kekchi 
Indians of Verapaz still use it in the preparation of a drink, in conjunction with cacao 
and parched corn; it imparts a bitter taste to the beverage. These Indians gather 
all the seeds they find along the trail; the almonds are first boiled, then roasted and 
grated. As a historical memorandum, we may also mention that during the first 
half of the nineteenth century the same seed was still used in Costa Rica in lieu of the 
present iron to smooth starched white linen.® 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 48-51.—All from photographs taken by G. N. Collins in Guatemala, except 
49, A; this taken by C. B. Doyle in Washington. Seeds and fruits natural size. 
Calocarpum viride Pittier, sp. nov. Puates 52-54. Fieures 85, 86. 
A tree similar in appearance to C. mammosum; branchlets erect, thick, glabrous, or 
subglabrous and shaggy-verrucose on older growth, densely ferruginous on the newest 
parts. 
Leaves petiolate, densely clustered at the ends of the floriferous branchlets, scat- 
tered and irregularly alternate along the sterile shoots. 
Petioles 2 cm. long, rather thick, broader at the base, 
subcanaliculate, grayish or ferruginose-tomentose. Leaf 
blades 10 to 25 cm. long, 5 to 7 cm. broad, usually oblan- 
ceolate but sometimes rounded at the tip, long-cuneate 
or cuneate-rounded at the base, glabrous above, except 
on the main nerve, here more or less hairy, white and 
filmy-tomentose beneath; margin entire or obscurely sin- 
uate; nervation impressed above, prominent beneath; 
primary veins 15 to 21 on each side. 
¥iG. 85.—Part of corolla of Calo- Flowers short-pedicellate, in numerous glomerules of 2 
oe etatinotes tees to 5 in the defoliated axils, or single or geminate in the ax- 
; ils of the lower leaves. Pedicels 1 to 3 mm. long, ferru- 
ginose-tomentose. Sepals 9 (sometimes 10), imbricate, more or less rounded, sub- 
apiculate, 2 to 4 mm. long and broad, the exterior ones smaller, thicker, and densely 
hairy, the interior ones larger, moderately hairy except on the right margin, covered 
in the imbrication. Corolla 10 mm. long, pinkish or sallow white, the broad tube 
pubescent, about 5 mm. long; lobes about 5 mm. long, broadly ovate-rounded, silky 
on the back and very shortly ciliate on the margin. Staminodes pubescent, 2.5 
mm. long, rather broad, contracted or attenuate at the tip. Stamens glabrous; fila- 
ments 2.5 mm. long, subulate; anthers ovate, with the connective more prominent 
than in C. mammosum. Pistil clavate, 7 to 9 mm. long; ovary ovoid, covered, 
together with the base of the style, with stiff brownish hairs; style obscurely 
5-sulcate and slightly thickened at the apex, which is often distinctly 5-lobulate. 
1 Nociones de Botanica Sistematica 76. 1893. 
* Pittier, H. Plantas usuales de Costa Rica. 141. 1908. 
8 Pittier, loc. cit. 
