Popenoe and Pachano: The Capulin 



57 



climate, growing to very large size, and 

 bearing a profusion of fruits which are 

 produced in bunches, possess a pleas- 

 ant bitterish taste, and are very good, 

 also, when dried. The chief importance 

 of this tree will be, how^ever, in the 

 possibility of crossing it with some 

 of the best cultivated cherries, if 

 artificially they may be brought to 

 flower at the same time. Primus 

 capiili blooms as early as January, 

 and does not ripen its fruits till July. 

 Two splendid specimens of this tree 

 are to be seen on Mr. Lewis' farm 

 near Carpinteria. They are some 

 twenty years old, and seedlings of an 

 older tree, now disappeared, which is 

 said to have been introduced from 

 Ecuador." 



DESCRIPTION 



In Mexico and Central America 

 the capulin rarely exceeds 35 feet 

 in height; in Ecuador it sometimes 

 reaches 50 feet. Professor Sargent, in 

 his "Manual of the Trees of North 

 America," gives the maximum height 

 of the species as 100 feet, but adds 

 that it is "usually much smaller, and 

 occasionally, toward the northern lim- 

 its of its range, shrub-like in habit." 

 During the first years of growth it is 

 slender and pyramidal in habit; later 

 the crown becomes somewhat more 

 broad, rarely broadly oval or rounded 

 in outline, with rather slender hori- 

 zontal branches and slender, stiff 

 branchlets, "at first pale green or 

 bronze color, soon becoming bright red 

 or dark brown tinged with red, red- 

 brown, or gray-brown, and marked by 

 minute pale lenticels during their 

 first winter, and bright red the follow- 

 ing year." The bark, which is one- 

 half to three-quarters of an inch thick, 

 is dark gray or ashy-gray in color, and 

 "broken by reticulated fissures into 

 small irregular plates, scaly on the 

 surface" (Sargent). The leaves, which 

 are commonly three to five and a half 

 inches long, are somewhat variable in 

 form: usually oblong-lanceolate, and 

 long-acuminate at the apex. The mar- 

 gins are finely serrate, and the upper 

 surface glabrous, dark green and shin- 



ing, the lower surface also glabrous, 

 and somewhat paler. The flowers, 

 which appear when the leaves are 

 about half grown, are borne on slender 

 racemes four to ten inches long; they 

 are white, about half an inch broad, 

 and delightfully fragrant. 



The fruit of the wild Prunus serotina 

 is described by Professor Sargent as 

 "ripening from June to October, in 

 drooping racemes, depressed-globose, 

 slightly lobed, M to 3^ inch in diam- 

 eter, dark red when fully grown, 

 almost black w^hcn ripe, with a thin 

 skin, dark purple juicy flesh of a 

 pleasant vinous flavor, and an oblong- 

 obovate thin-walled stone, about }/^ 

 inch long." This description must be 

 altered somewhat if it is to cover the 

 cultivated forms of the species; the 

 best capulins of Ecuador are depressed- 

 globose in form, sometimes as much as 

 one inch in diameter, and may vary 

 from light maroon to deep purplish 

 in color. The skin is thin, but not 

 delicate in texture. The flesh is pale 

 brownish green, melting and very 

 juicy, with a sweet, vinous flavor 

 strongly resembling that of the Bigar- 

 reau type of cherry, plus a trace of 

 bitterness which is derived from the 

 skin. The stone is proportionately 

 no larger than in the best horticultural 

 varieties of the Bigarreau type. 



It must not be inferred from these 

 remarks that all capulins, either in 

 Ecuador or any of the other countries 

 of tropical America where the fruit is 

 cultivated, are of this character. The 

 vast majority of them are not over 

 half an inch in diameter and are large- 

 seeded, with scanty flesh of distinctly 

 bitter taste. So far as we have ob- 

 served, Mexico possesses no forms of 

 such excellent horticultural character 

 as those of Ecuador, nor does Guate- 

 mala. In fact, the majority of capulins 

 in all these countries amply justify 

 Theodor Wolf in remarking that the 

 fruit "is quite acrid, and can be 

 eaten only in a country where there is 

 a scarcity of better fruits." No one 

 recognizes the truth of this better than 

 ourselves; and it is precisely because of 

 this condition that we have undertaken 



