136 



Description of the wood 



ciapwood thin, light yellowish; heartwood darker. ,Vood 

 hard, heavy, very brittle, very close grained, taking an 

 excellent polish. Annual rings of growth not visible even 

 uxider high pov/er micro scope. 



Pores very numerous, small (.15 ma. or less in diaaeter) , 

 round or slightly elongated radially, open and arranged in 

 small irregular groups or in branching radial rows, so cha- 

 racteristic of this group of plants. Vessels usually sur- 

 rounded by several rov;s of wood-parenchyma fibers. V.'here 

 these elements are in contact with wood-parenchyma and pith- 

 ray cells they are provided with large elliptical simple 

 pits in addition to bordered pits. End walls or vessel 

 segments completely absorbed. iVood fibers 2.48 mm. long. 

 Thick walls and small cell cavities; the cell walls are 

 marked with small slit-like simple pits. /Vood-parenchjcna 

 fibers highly developed, forming numerous irregular tan- 

 gential lines, fro.-n one to four or mere rows of cells wide. 

 Pith rays very numerous and inconspicuous, hardly visible 

 under the hand magnifier, usually from 1 to 2 cells wide, 

 or occasionally from 3 to 4 and from a few to sometimes as 

 many as 3C cells high.,, 



Distribution, common names and uses 



This small tree is, so far as is known, the only Isthmian 

 representative of the thorny Sapotaceee cf America, which all 

 belong to the genus BuraeliB. It is found all over the West 

 Indian Islands, on the high plateaus end western v/atershed 

 of Llexico and alcng the x^acific coast of Central America. 

 On some of the (Vindward Islands, it goes by the name of box - 

 wood and break-bill v/hile it is called bc is-de- b ouia , petit - 

 bouis and bois-de-fer in the j'rench Antilles, and caimitillo 

 in Panama. The 7;ood is very hard and used in the manufac- 

 ture of small house-hold imprements, handles and the like. 

 The fruit is edible axod tastes not u;ilike that of the star- 

 apple or caimito ( Ghrysophyllum cainito L.). 



