THE PLANT WOELD 183 



larger fruit, covered with soft, curved prickles, looking somewhat like 

 a dark green porcupine; the white pulp makes delicious drinks and 

 ices. 



A. reticidata, custard apple, the mamon of the Cubans, is hard to 

 distinguish by the foliage from A. chei'imolia, the cherimoya of Span- 

 iard and English. The fruit of the former has an areolated, reticu- 

 lated surface, and ripens in March and April; that of the latter is 

 minutely tuberculate, and ripens much later. The taste of both is 

 described as " a slight, agreeable acidity mingled with a luscious sweet- 

 ness," but is seldom appreciated by the visiting stranger. 



Next to Anonaceae, the Sapotaceae contribute the greatest number 

 of trees with edible fruit. The following three, whose fruits are com- 

 monly kept in Cuban markets, deserve mention: 



ClirysophyUum ca'unto, star apple or caimito, a medium-sized, 

 shapely tree with oval to oblong leaves, lustrous above, golden pubes- 

 cent beneath, and round fruit, eight to ten-celled, the reddish pulp of a 

 very pleasant sweetish-acidulous flavor. 



LiiCLima mamynosa, mamey Colorado or mamey sapote (called Sa- 

 pote in Santiago), the mammee sapota of the English. In common 

 cultivation; not unfreqiTently fifty to sixty feet high, the obovate-oblong 

 leaves with long wedge-shaped base; fruit ovoid, four to five inches 

 long, with hard, rough, brownish skin, and one to three large, shining, 

 black seeds; the reddish, soft, homogeneous pulp is not unlike rich 

 custard. 



Achras sapota, sapote of the Cubans (called nispero in Santiago) 

 and sapodilla of the English. A smaller tree than the preceding, with 

 oblong-lanceolate, wrinkled leaves, crowded at the end of the branches' 

 the globose or ovoid fruit one to two inches in diameter, with brownish, 

 thin skin, and eight to ten seeds in a j^ellowish pulp. Eaten as it be- 

 comes soft, in the incipient stage of decay, it is very palatable, being 

 more acidulous than the preceding, and preferred by many. 



The mamey de Santo Domingo {Blammea Americano), of the Clu- 

 siaceae, not to be confounded with the mamey Colorado, is a large, 

 beautiful tree, fifty to eighty feet high, with obovate-oblong, lustrous 

 leaves; the globose, russet fruit, three to six inches in diameter, con- 

 tains one to four seeds in a yellowish, granular pulp, and is eaten raw 

 or cooked, but not highly esteemed in either state. The reddish wood 

 is werj hard and durable. 



The Kosaceae, which in higher latitudes produce the bulk of our 

 best fruits, here do not furnish a single fruit of any value. Prunus 

 occidentalis is described as a pretty tree, with hard, compact wood, but 

 its cherry is not used except perhaps to impart a flavor of hydrocyanic 

 acid to certain liquors. The only tree of that family cultivated to any 



