BANCROFT ON THK HOG-GUM TftEE OF JAMAICA. 145 



ness, of a pleasant, sweet and subacid taste, and abounding 

 with a thick yellow juice. It generally ripens in August. 



The seed is about an inch in length, nearly egg-shaped, 

 flattened on the side towards the placenta, irregularly furrow- 

 ed on its surface, of a brown colour, completely enclosed 

 within an arillus, and covered by a very thin coat which ap- 

 pears to consist of a single membrane. It is exalbuminous ; 

 the embryo subconical, nearly as long as, and occupying the 

 middle of the seed, straight, having its ends slightly curved, 

 the upper from the placenta, and the lower towards it; coty- 

 ledons thick and united, forming one mass, as in monocoty- 

 ledons. Concerning the radicle and the plumula I can 

 furnish no particulars, as none of the seeds sown by me ger- 

 minated. The arillus is of a very delicate structure, smooth, 

 and of alight brown colour outwardly, and nearly transparent 

 when separated from the seed. Upon it numerous vessels 

 are seen to ramify from a main trunk, which arises at the 

 umbilicus on the middle of the side next to the placenta, and 

 proceeds in nearly a direct line to the further end, a little 

 beyond which it divides into several branches that send off 

 branchlets, anastomosing and spreading over the whole mem- 

 brane, the larger ones causing by their pressure correspond- 

 ing furrows over the surface of the seed, similar to those on 

 the nutmeg. In the fresh unripe fruit, these vessels contain 

 a light crimson fluid, giving to the arillus a resemblance to 

 the pia mater of the brain. The inner surface of that mem- 

 brane is covered with a very fine silky down, of a brownish 

 fawn colour, the fibrils of which, examined by a lens, seemed 

 to enter into the spermo-dermis. By its arillated seeds, with 

 consolidated cotyledons, this plant has an affinity to Garci- 

 nia of Linne and Ochrocarpvs of Petit-Thouars : but in the 

 former, the vessels of the arillus appear to ramify immediately 

 from the umbilicus as from a centre. See G&rtner de Friic- 

 tibus, Tab. CY./g. d. 



Every part of the plant, from the bark even to the petals 

 and anthers, when cut or bruised, gives out freely a thick 

 juice of a bright sulphur yellow, that is very viscid, has a 

 Vol. IV — No. 27. T 



