SAPOTACEZ. 
182 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
spheres, a single species inhabiting the islands of southern Florida. Several species of Mimusops pro- 
duce hard heavy timber, fragrant flowers, edible fruits, and valuable milky juices. d/imusops Balata, 
the Bully-tree or Balata of the West Indies and Guiana, where it grows to the height of a hundred 
feet and produces trunks six feet in diameter, is a valuable timber-tree ;° it yields a small deliciously 
flavored fruit, and abundant sweet milky juice which is used as food by the natives of Guiana, and 
in recent years has been imported into the United States and Europe in the form of an elastic ductile 
gum, the balata of commerce? In India Mimusops hexandra* is often cultivated as a fruit-tree, and its 
hard tough even grained wood is used in the construction of buildings, in turnery, and for gun- 
stocks.» Mimusops Elengi,’ a native of southern India and Ceylon, is also cultivated in India and 
Burmah for its fragrant star-shaped flowers, which are used in garlands, and for its edible fruit; oil is 
pressed from its seeds, and its bark is used medicinally in native practice.’ Mimusops Kauki* of Bur- 
mah, the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, and of Australia, is often cultivated in tropical countries as 
a fruit-tree ;° and J/imusops parvifolia” of Australia exudes a thick milky edible sap with the taste of 
fresh cream. 
The significance of the generic name, from uiud and dic, given in allusion to the shape of the 
corolla, is not apparent. 
1 Gertner f. Fruct. iii. 133, t. 205 (1805). — A. de Candolle, 
Prodr. viii. 206. — Miquel, Martius Fl. Brasil. vii. 44. — Beauvisage, 
Origines Botaniques de la Gutta-Percha, 54. 
Achras Balata, Aublet, Pl. Guian. i. 308 (1775). 
? Mimusops globosa, Gertner f. J. c. 132, t. 205 (1805). — Grise- 
bach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 400. ” 
Sapota Mulleri, Bleekrod, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 4, vii. 225 (1857). 
2 R. Schomburgk, A Description of British Guiana, 33. — Laslett, 
Timber and Timber-trees, 160. 
8 Balata-gum when dried resembles leather and is heavier than 
water. Treated with sulphur it forms a vulcanized elastic supple 
substance intermediate in its properties between gutta-percha and 
India - rubber. 
ployed for isolating telegraph wires ; its lack of durability when 
When first introduced it was extensively em- 
exposed to the air, however, lessens its value for this purpose, and 
it is now little used except as an ingredient in chewing-gum, for 
which purpose its sweetness and excellent masticatory qualities 
make it valuable. To obtain the gum the coarse outer bark is 
removed from the trees and a number of oblique insertions are 
made in the inner bark to the height of about seven feet from 
the ground ; a ring of clay wrapped around the base of the tree 
collects the sap as it flows from the cuts. The quantity of sap 
obtained from a tree varies from six to thirty ounces, which produce 
from three quarters of a pound to a pound of the dried gum. This 
process, it is said, does not injure the trees. They are often cut 
down, however, and the sap extracted from wounds made along 
the whole length of the trunks ; in this way as much as forty-five 
pounds of dried gum have been obtained from a single tree, while 
the average amount is eleven pounds. (See Bleekrod, 1. c. 220. — 
Martius, Fl. Brasil. vii. 112. — Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 600. — 
Spons, Encyclopedia of the Industrial Arts, Manufactures, and Raw 
Commercial Products, ii. 1635.— Jackson, Commercial Botany of 
the Nineteenth Century, 33.) 
4 Roxburgh, Pl. Corom. i. 16, t.15 (1795). — A. de Candolle, 1. c. 
204. — Hooker f. Fil. Brit. Ind. iii. 549. 
AMimusops Indica, A. de Candolle, J. c. 205 (1844). — Thwaites, 
Enum. Pl. Zeylan. 175. — Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 291. 
5 Brandis, J. c.— Balfour, Timber-trees of India, ed. 2, 168 ; En- 
cyclopedia of India, ed. 3, ii. 950. 
* Linneeus, Spec. 349 (1753). — Roxburgh, J. c. 15, t. 14. — Gert- 
ner, Fruct. i. 198, t. 42.— A. de Candolle, J. c. 202. —Thwaites, 
l. c. — Brandis, J. c. 293. — Kurz, l. c.— Hooker f. 1. c. 548. 
7 Beddome, Fl. Sylv. S. Ind. i. t. 40.— Balfour, 1. c. 167 ; 1. c. 
8 Linneus, l. c. (1753). — R. Brown, Prodr. 531.— A. de Can- 
dolle, 2. c. 203. — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. ii. 1042. — Hooker f. J. c. 
549. 
Mimusops dissecta, R. Brown, J. c. (1810).— Bot. Mag. lix. t. 
3157. — A. de Candolle, 7. c. 204. 
Mimusops Balota, Blume, Bidr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 673 (not Gert- 
ner f.) (1825). 
Mimusops Kauki, var. Browniana, A. de Candolle, J. c. 203 
(1844). 
Mimusops Hookeri, A. de Candolle, 1. c. 204 (1844). 
Mimusops Browniana, Bentham, Fl. Austral. iv. 285 (1869). 
® Brandis, 1. c. 
10 R. Brown, /. c. (1810). — A. de Candolle, 1. c. 203. — Mueller, 
Fragm. Phyt. Austral. v. 160. — Bentham, I. c. 
1 Maiden, Useful Native Plants of Australia, 45. 
