Rhamnales.] 



SAPOTACE^E. 



591 



that they should be stationed at some distance. They differ from Storaxworts in their 

 short radicle and amygdaloid embryo. 



Chiefly natives of the tropics of India, Africa, and America ; a few arc found in the 

 southern parts of North America, and at the Cape of Good Hope. 



The fruit of many is esteemed in their native countries as an article of the dessert : 

 such are the Sappodilla Plum (Achras Sapota and other species), the Star-apple 

 (Chrysophyllum Cainito), the Marmalade (Achras mammosa), the Medlar of Surinam, 

 the Mirausops Elengi, and others ; they are described as having generally a sweet 

 taste, with a little acidity. The Bully or Bullet-tree of Guiana is a species of Mimusopa 

 according to Su' R. Schomburgk. The fruit is described as being of the size of the Coffce- 

 beiTy, and when quite ripe delicious ; its wood is soUd, heavy, close-grained, and 

 dm'able. Besides these, various species of Lucuma and Clirysophyllum rank among 

 dessert fruits, as do the Imbricarias malabarica and maxima, whose fruit is subacid, 

 sweet, and like an Orange in appearance. The seeds of Achras Sapota are aperient 

 and diuretic, but in over-doses they produce severe pain, and are even dangerous ; 

 the bai'k is a substitute for Cinchona ; those of some others are filled with a concrete 

 oil, which is used for domestic pm'poses. Mimusops Kaki, like many trees with astrin- 

 gent bark, jdelds a gum, while its fruit is of a sw^eetish taste, and much eaten by the 

 natives of India. A kind of tliick oil, hke butter, is obtained from the fniit of Bassia 

 butyracea, the Mahva or Madliuca-tree. The flowers of B. latifolia (the Mopha, Maddoo- 

 doomah), are employed extensively in the distillation of a kind of arrack, called 

 Mowra ; they are said to resemble in taste the dried seedless Grapes called Corinths. 

 The Bassia longifolia is called the lUupie-tree ; its fruit, when pressed, jields a large 

 quantity of oil used in India for lamps, soap-making, and also for food ; it is employed 

 medicinally to cure the itch, and other cutaneous disorders ; the leaves boiled in water, 

 as weU as the milk of the green fruit and bark, are used in rheumatic affections. The 

 Butter-tree of Mimgo Park was also a species of Bassia. See RoyWs Illustrations^ 

 p. 263, for further information concerning these Bassias. The bark of 4 species of 

 Acliras is so astringent and febrifugal as to have been substituted for Quinquina. The 

 Cow-tree of Humboldt has been sometimes supposed to be referable to this Order ; but 

 there seems no reason now to doubt its belonging to Artocarpads. Monesia bark, a 

 South American product, with a powerful bitter-sweet taste, lately employed success- 

 fully in France in diarrhoea, monorrhagia, leucorrhoea, and haemoptysis, is said to belong to 

 some plant of this Order. — Pharm. Joiwn. 3. 292. The bark of Bumelia nigra and others 

 is bitter, astringent, and febrifugal, and the wood very hard. The fruit of B. retusa is 

 said to be milky ; that of B. lycioides austere, with some sweetness, and useful in 

 dian'hoea ; while the flowers of B. graveolens have a heavy unpleasant odour. The 

 flowers of Mimusops Elengi, on the contrary, are powerfully aromatic, and a fi-agrant 

 water is distilled from them. The seeds of this plant yield an abundance of oil, in 

 request for painters, and said to be useful in parturition ; the leaves are said to produce 

 an extraordinary noise when burnt. 



GENERA. 



Chrysophyllum, L. 



Nycterisition, R. 



Cainito, Tuss. 



Ecclimusa, Mart. 

 Pouteria, Aiibl. 



ChcEtocar%)US, L. 



Labatia, Sw. 

 Labatia, Mart. 

 Lucuma, Mol. 



Guapeba, Gom. 



Vitellaria, Gaertn. 

 Sapota, Plum. 



Achras, P. Br. 

 Hormogyne, A. Cunn. 

 Sersalisia, R, Br. 

 Sideroxylon, L, 



Rohertsia, Scop. 

 Argania, R. et Sch, 



Isonandra, Wight. 

 Dipholis, A. DC. 

 Bumelia, Sw. 

 Labourdonnaisia, Bojer. 

 I)elastrea,A.DC. 

 Azaola, Blanco. 

 Payena, A. JDC. 

 Bassia, Kiinig. 

 ? Palaquium, Blanco. 



Imbricaria, Comm. 



Binectaria, Forsk. 

 Mimusops, L. 



Elengi, Rheede. 



Manilkara, Rheede. 



? Pheboiithis, Gaertn. 



Synarrhcna, Fisch. 

 Omphalocarpum, Beam'. 

 ? Rostellaria, Gcertn, 



Numbers. Gen. 21. Sp. 212. 



Ehenacece. 

 Position. — Styracacese. — Sapotace^. — Celastracese. 

 MyrsiTiacece, 



