184 THE PLANT WORLD 



extent, sometimes large and handsome, is the Japanese nispero or med- 

 lar, loqnat {Eriohotrya Japonica), whose yellow, marble-shaped fruit, 

 produced in abundant clusters, has a really delicious acidulous flavor. 



Allied to the rose family is the native icaco {Chrysobalamis Icaco), 

 seldom mor^ than a large shrub, with white flowers in cymes and plum- 

 like, ribbed fruit, mostly used in preserves and confections. 



One of the most common and popular fniits in Cuba is that from 

 the mamoncilla {Melicocca hljugo), a large fine tree with characteristic 

 leaf of four leaflets. The perfectly round, green fruit is very astringent 

 until fully ripe in July, when it becomes deliciously flavored, and is 

 much consumed in spite of the large stone and rather scant pulp. 



To the same family belongs Blighia saiiida, the akee of the English 

 and arbol del seso of the Spaniards, with strikingly ornamental scarlet 

 fruit, containing an eatable white arillus. This tree, so commonly cul- 

 tivated in Jamaica and other Antilles, is very rarely seen in Cuba. 



The most profitable of all native fruits is that of the guava or guay- 

 ava of tke Spaniards {Psidimn Guajava), which grows wild everywhere 

 as a shrub or small tree, with stiff, strongly-veined, oblong leaves and 

 globose or obovate, many-seeded berries, which, besides being made 

 into the well-known paste and jelly, are also very good raw. 



We have already seen that the Cubans have their plums or ciru- 

 elas, species of Spondias; they also have their cherries or cerezos {Mal- 

 pighia glabra and 31. punicifolia), allied, if not identical species, with 

 ovate to elliptical, small, entire leaves, reddish, umbellate flowers and 

 red drupe of the exact shape and color of the cherry, but a poor sub- 

 stitute for it. This fruit is rather too acid to be palatable, but makes 

 an excellent jelly; instead of a stone, it contains three leathery, winged 

 pyrenes. A remarkable feature of these cerezos is their prolificacy, 

 producing, in the summer, new crops of cherries every six weeks, so 

 that they are always in blossom or fruit. I have not yet seen a single 

 specimen of Priinus Cerasus in Cuba. 



A hardy, quaint but graceful tree, cultivated in all gardens, is the 

 papaw or papaya ( Carica Papaya), with simple unbranched trunk, pal- 

 mate leaves with pinnatifid lobes, and yellowish, ovoid fruit, ranging in 

 size from an orange to a shaddock and clinging to the trunk. This 

 fruit has a rich, sweetish, not unpleasant taste, and is said to have some 

 of the digestive power so remarkable in the milky juice of the plant. 



Another medicinal fruit is the pod of Tamarindm Indicus, a large, 

 handsome, spreading tree, abundantly naturalized in Cuba. Its habit 

 of branching near the ground makes it undesirable for roadsides, but 

 can be grouped together into beautiful groves. The pulp of the fruit, 

 although always acid, is quite palatable when fully ripe. 



Commonly cultivated on the hills, in the province of Santiago, is 



