STANDLEY — TREES AND SHBUBS OF MEXICO. 657 



tral America; from the Nahuatl, xocotl^) ; " abal " (Yucatan, Maya) ; "atoy- 

 axotl," " costixocotl," " atoyaxocotl " (Nahuatl); " capuatlcacao " (Mexico, 

 Morelos^ Ramirez) ; " cupu " (Tarascan) ; " jocote tronador," " sismoyo " (Costa 

 Rica); "ciruela campechana" (Cuba); "jobillo," " jobo francos" (Porto 

 Rico) ; "ciruela calentana " (Colombia). 



The English name is " hog plum." The tree is common in many parts of 

 Mexico and is often planted, especially along fences. According to Merrill, it 

 was introduced into the Philippines at an early date, and the name used there 

 by the Tagalogs is " sirihuelas," evidently a corruption of " ciruela." 



Usually the plant is only a shrub, with few long branches which frequently 

 spread along the ground, but often it gets to be a small tree. It grows readily 

 from cuttings. The wood is white or yellowish and when procurable in suffi- 

 ciently large pieces may be used for interior finish and other purposes ; it has 

 been used in Brazil for paper pulp. The fruit varies greatly in size and qual- 

 ity. The skin is rather thick, usually purplish, but often yellow. The flesh is 

 acidulous and somewhat resinous. Large quantities of the fruit are eaten in 

 Mexico, raw or cooked, and it is sometimes dried or made into sweetmeats. 

 It is used also to make cooling beverages and sometimes for intoxicating 

 liquors. There is a popular belief in Mexico that if eaten in too great quantity 

 the fruit causes fevers. Cattle and pigs are very fond of the fruits and fatten 

 upon them.* The fruit is reputed to have diuretic and antispasmodic prop- 

 erties. 



The tree is treated by most of the early writers upon tropical America. 

 Oviedo (Lib. VIII, Cap. XXI) treats of it under the names " xocot," " ciruelo," 

 and " hobo." " The wine made from the fruit," he says, " is of fair quality 

 and keeps a year; to me it appears better than the apple cider of Vizcaya. 

 * * * They also make very good vinegar of the ciruelas, and a good green 

 sauce with them and axi." Spondias purpurea is illustrated by Hernandez,* 

 but without description, under the name " mazaxochotli." It is probably to 

 this species also that Sahagfin refers, under the names " macaxocotl " and 

 " atoyaxocotl." The latter, he states, " is a large plum, sweet, and very good 

 to eat, either raw or cooked. They make from it a drink more intoxicating 

 than pulque." 



2. Spondias lutea L. Sp. ed. 2. 613. 1762. 



Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatan, Oaxaca, and perhaps elsewhere. Widely dis- 

 tributed in the Tropics of both hemispheres. 



Ti'ee, often 10 to 15 meters high, with broad crown ; leaflets, 5 to 9 pairs, 

 conspicuously petiolulate, oblong or ovate-oblong, glabrous or nearly so ; 

 flowers, fragrant, white; petals, 3 mm. long; fruit, ovoid, yellow, 3 to 4 cm. 

 long. "Jobo," "hobo," " jovo " (Veracruz, etc., Central America, Cuba, Vene- 

 zuela) ; "abal," " xkinin-hob6," " mompin " (Yucatan); "ciruela" (Yuca- 

 tan, Nicaragua); "ciruela amarilla" (Veracruz, Oaxaca); " chupandilla " 

 (Oaxaca, Reko) ; "pompoqua," " popoaqua " (Michoacan, Tarascan, Ledn) ; 

 " cozticxocotl," " coztilxocotl " (Nahuatl); "jobo espino," "jobo ronoso " 



* The name indicates an acidulous fruit, and was applied generally to plum- 

 like fruits, in contradistinction to zapotl, or " sweet-fruit." 



* For an account of the hortictfltural aspects of the genus Spondias see 

 Popenoe in Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. 3216-3217, 1917. For an account of the 

 production of lac on Spondias see p. 641 of the present work, under JatropJia 

 curcas. 



* Thesaurus 384. 1651. 



7808—23 10 



