104 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
fruit echinate,” certainly does not belong to the same genus, and even its place 
among the Moraceae is doubtful. 
Brosimum spurium Swartz, Fl. Ind. Oce. 1: 20. 1797, is Pseudolmedia spuria 
Griseb.* 
Brosimum paraense Huber, Bol. Mus. Goeldi 6: 66. 1910, is probably a good 
species, but the description of the inflorescence is incomplete. 
Brosimum speciosum Dekker, Bull. Kol, Mus, Haarlem 35: 100. 1906, is a name 
only. 
Brosimum heteroclitum Donn. Smith, Bot. Gaz, 31: 121. 1901, is a most inter- 
esting addition to the flora of Costa Rica, but it is certainly neither a Brosimum 
nor a Piratinera, the ovaries being described as pluriovulate and several on each 
receptacle. 
USES AND VERNACULAR NAMES OF SPECIES OF THE GROUP. 
Brosimum alicastrum Swartz is the breadnut of Jamaica, where the seeds, 
roasted singly or boiled together and reduced to a paste, are used as food, having 
a taste not unlike that of a hazelnut. The same species is reported from 
Yucatin under the Maya name of “ox” (Seler) or “oox” (Schott) and the 
Spanish names of “ramén” and “hoja ramén.” The leaves and young shoots 
are there considered an excellent cattle feed, but no mention is made of the 
fruits. In Jamaica the name “ramon,” or ‘“ramoon,” is applied to Trophis 
americana L., another tree of the mulberry family from which green fodder is 
obtained. 
According to Liebmann? and others, this species extends into Central Mexico 
as far as Colipa and Papantla, where cattle also feed on the leaves, the ver- 
nacular name being “ ojite.” ‘ 
The fruits of Brosimum costaricanum Liebm. are used to a small extent in 
the same way as the breadnut in Jamaica, and the flowers, which cover the 
ground under the trees at the time of blooming, are said to enter into the 
preparation of a savory pie. Both this species and B. terrabanum Pittier afford 
fodder and are known under the common name of “ ojoche.” As in the Mexican 
“ ojite,” the primitive Maya root “ox” is here readily recognized, as it is also 
in “ojuste,”’ the Honduran vernacular for another unidentified species. But 
the ending “ joche” or “ juche” (found besides in “ cacalojoche,” “ esquijoche,” 
“ quisjoche,” ete.)* is derived from the Nahuatl “ xochitl,” flower, and hence it 
is also supposed that the original meaning of ‘ ojoche”” may have been o-fochitl, 
flower of the trail, on account of the deciduous receptacles covering the forest 
paths at a certain period of the year. 
To the names “ cow tree” and “palo de vaca,” for Brosimum utile, those of 
“Arbol de leche,” “ palo de Jeche,” and “ avichuri,” used in Colombia, may be 
added, the last evidently indigenous. Cortez‘ reproduces the following analysis 
by Heintz, showing that the milk is not such a substantial food as had been 
affirmed by Humboldt: 
Water ~~ eee 57. 
Wax of the form Cs Hes Os_-___-_-------__-- ee 3 : 
Wax of the form Css Hss O7_- ~~~ eee 
*¥1. Brit. W. Ind. 152. 1859. 
* Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Afh. V. 2: 834. 1851. 
® See Pittier, Pl. Usual. Costa Rica 57. 1908. 
* Fl. Colomb. 126, 1896. 
