166 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. SAPOTACEE. 
long, has a thick tough clear yellow skin and thin dry flesh of a pleasant subacid flavor ; it stands erect 
or nearly at right angles to the branch on a much thickened woody stem, and in falling separates from 
the calyx. The seed is obovate, rounded above, narrowed at the base, half an inch long and a third of 
an inch broad. Produced in great profusion, the fruit of the Mastic is an important article of food 
for many birds and animals, who devour it eagerly. 
In the United States Sideroxylum Mastichodendron inhabits southern Florida, where it is dis- 
tributed on the eastern coast from Cape Canaveral to the southern keys and on the western coast from 
Cape Romano to Cape Sable, usually growing on rich hummocks; on the keys it is found with the 
Gumbo Limbo, the Marlberry, the Bustic, the Black Calabash, the Ironwood, the Pigeon Plum, and the 
Kugenias, and on the mainland with the Live Oak, the Palmetto, the Mulberry, and the Cuban Pine. 
It is also common on the Bahamas and on many of the West Indian islands. 
The wood of Sideroxylum Mastichodendron is very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, and close- 
grained ; it contains small scattered open ducts and numerous inconspicuous medullary rays, and is 
bright orange-colored, with thick yellow sapwood composed of forty or fifty layers of annual growth. 
The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 1.0109, a cubic foot weighing 63.00 pounds. It is 
not injured by the teredo, and in southern Florida is largely used in ship and boat building. 
Sideroxylum Mastichodendron was first distinguished by Catesby, who found it in the Bahama 
Islands, and in 1743 published the earliest description of it in the second volume of his Natural 
fiistory of Carolina.’ It was discovered in Florida on Key West by Dr. J. L. Blodgett. 
The Mastic is the largest, the most valuable, and one of the most beautiful of the tropical trees 
which inhabit the coast of Florida; and no other North American tree which equals it in size produces 
such heavy wood. 
1 Cornus, foliis Laurinis, fructu majore luteo, ii. 75, t. 75. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
Puate CCXLIV. Siperoxytum MAstTICHODENDRON. 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
. Diagram of a flower. 
A flower, enlarged. 
A flower, the corolla displayed, enlarged. 
A stamen, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of a flower, the corolla removed, enlarged. 
NAOQor wwe 
. An ovule, much magnified. 
Puate CCXLV. Siperoxytum MasticHopENDROoN. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Cross section of a fruit, slightly enlarged. 
Vertical section of a fruit, slightly enlarged. 
- A seed, slightly enlarged. 
oP 0 tS 
. An embryo, slightly enlarged. 
