THE MEXICAN APPLE or WHITE SAPOTA. 



Casimiroa edulis. RUTACEAE AURANTIACEAE. 



The tree is nearly allied to the orange tribe and is 

 native of the semitropical but temperate regions of 

 Northern Mexico. It is a tall tree with long- stalked 

 alternate digitate leaves having long narrow acuminate 

 leaflets, and seems to be more hardy than the orange 

 tree. The first two trees were introduced in these Islands 

 in 1914, and were planted in fairly good soil in San 

 Antonio Gardens. In five years they made very quick 

 growth, but they have not yet fruited. The tree is said 

 to grow to a large size, with a trunk nearly i metre in 

 diameter, and lives for over one hundred years. The 

 flowers are small and greenish, produced in axillary 

 racemes. The fruits are more or less globose, sometimes 

 depressed and even slightly oblong, and 5 to 6 c.m. in 

 diameter. The rind is thin and easily injured, and is of 

 a greenish yellow colour; the flesh or pulp is white or 

 cream, with hardly any acidity, and is very sugary with 

 an agreable flavour. The seeds are large, usually five, 

 but often reduced to two or less, by abortion of the ovules, 

 and are enclosed in a white swollen involucre. The tree 

 is remarkably hardy and in deep soils with a fairly moist 

 subsoil will thrive well without irrigation. It is said to 

 be very productive, but the fruit of seedlings is often too 

 small to be useful. 



PROPAGATION. The Mexican Apple is generally 

 propagated by seed, which can be sown in spring or at 

 any time from April to September, and if kept long 

 should be stratified, being liable to lose its germinating 

 power if kept dry for a few weeks. The seedlings grow 

 quickly, and may be potted off singly, or planted out in 

 the nursery about one metre apart, and treated in the 

 same manner as Citrus trees. They can be trained as 



