SAPOTACE^ 



747 



1. Mimusops Sieberi, A. DC. TVild Dilly. 



Leaves clustered at the ends of the branches, involute in the bud, elliptical- 

 oblong or occasionally slightly obovate, rounded or retuse at the apex, rounded or 

 wedge-shaped at the base, with slightly thickened revolute margins, when they un- 

 fold bright red, and slightly puberulous on the under surface of the midribs, and at 



'</ J'99 



maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and lustrous, covered on the upper sur- 

 face with a slight glaucous bloom, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, S'-A' long and 

 I'-l^' wide, with stout midribs glabrous, or puberulous, with rusty hairs below, 

 and deeply impressed above, appearing in Florida in April and May and deciduous 

 during their second year; their petioles slender, grooved, rusty-pubescent, especially 

 while young, ^'-1' long. Flowers opening in the spring on slender pedicels near 

 the ends of the branches coated with rusty tomentum and V or more long, from the 

 axils of leaves of the year or from those of fallen leaves of the previous year; calyx 

 narrowly ovate, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer row lan- 

 ceolate-acute, covered on the outer surface with rusty brown tomentum and on the 

 inner surface with pale pubescence, thickened and usually marked at the base on 

 the outer surface by black spots, those of the inner row ovate, acute, keeled toward 

 the base, light greenish yellow and pale-pubescent; corolla light yellow tinged with 

 green, |' in diameter, with 6 spreading lanceolate acute divisions entire or erosely 

 toothed toward the apex, furnished at the base on each side with slender acute ap- 

 pendages one half to two thirds their length; starainodia minute, nearly triangular, 

 entire; ovary narrowly ovate, dark red, puberulous toward the base, with pale hairs, 

 and gradually narrowed into an elongated exserted style stigmatic at the apex. Fruit 

 ripening at the end of the year, in the spring, or in the early autumn, on a stout erect 

 stem about V long, and persistent until after the tree flowers the following year, 

 subglobose to slightly obovate, flattened and compressed at the apex, I'-l^ in diame- 

 ter, usually 1-seeded by abortion, with a thick dry outer coat roughened by minute 

 rusty brown scales, and thick spongy flesh filled with milky juice ; seed ^' long, 

 with an elongated lateral hilum. 



A tree, in Florida rarely more than 30 high, with a short gnarled trunk 12'-15' in 

 diameter and usually hollow and defective, thick branches forming a compact round 

 head, and stout branchlets clustered at the ends of the branches of the previous year, 



