160 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. SAPOTACE. 
The most valuable species of the genus, Chrysophyllum Cainito,! a native of the West Indies and 
now cultivated in all tropical countries and widely naturalized in many parts of Central and South 
America, produces the so-called star-apple, a succulent edible blue or purple and green fruit of the size 
and shape of a small apple, which owes its name to the seven to ten large cells regularly arranged 
around the centre and presenting the appearance of a star when the fruit is cut open transversely. The 
fruit of several of the South American species is edible,’ although none are so good as the star-apple, 
which contains less of the milky juice peculiar to many plants of this family. In India the dried fruit 
of Chrysophyllum Roxburghit® is eaten by the inhabitants of Khasia. Several of the species produce 
hard handsome and valuable wood. The large leaves, green and shining on the upper surface, and 
resplendent on the lower with golden or copper-colored pubescence, make many of the American 
species desirable ornamental trees for the decoration of gardens. 
The generic name, from ypvods and vAdor, alludes to the golden covering of the under surface 
of the leaves. 
1 Linneus, Spec. 192 (excl. var. 8.) (1753). — Jacquin, Hist. Stirp. Cainito pomiferum, Tussac, Fl. Antill. ii. 41, t. 9 (1824). 
Am. 51, t. 37, f. 1; Hist. Select. Stirp. Am. 30, t. 51. — Descourtilz, 2 Martius, Fl. Brasil. vii. 113. 
Fil. Meéd. Antill. ii. 13, t. 70.— Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. 8 Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 33 (1838).— A. de Candolle, J. c. 162. — 
Gen. et Spec. iii. 236. — Maycock, Fl. Barb. 108. — Bot. Mag. lviii. Kurz, Forest Fl. Brit. Burm. ii. 118.— Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 
t. 3072. — A. de Candolle, Prodr. viii. 157. —Grisebach, Fl. Brit. 535. 
W. Ind. 398. — Miquel, Martius Fl. Brasil. vii. 94.— Gray, Syn. 
Fl. N. Am. ii. 67. 
