386 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



remark is, that the wood of the allioator apple-tree is 

 so soft and compressible, that the people of Jamaica 

 call it cork-wood, and employ it for stoppers. 



Wild Plums — Achras. 



There are various species of the wild plum in the 

 West Indies, some of them timber-trees of large di- 

 mensions ; but those most valued for their frnit are 

 the sappodilla plum (Achras sapota), and the mammee 

 sapota (^Achras mammosa.) 



The sappodilla plum is a large and straight tree, 

 which runs to a considerable height without any 

 branches, with a dark gray bark, very much chapped. 

 The leaves are smooth and beautiful, and the flowers 

 white and bell-shaped. The fruit resembles a ber- 

 gamot pear in shape and size, but in colour is like a 

 medlar, and is similar also to that, in being eaten 

 when it is beginning to decay. 



The mammee sapota grows on a much smaller 

 tree, with larger leaves and flowers of a cream- 

 colour ; the fruit about the same size as the former, 

 but brownish when ripe, and containing a pulp re- 

 sembling marmalade of quinces in consistency, and 

 of a very delicious flavour. On account of this the 

 tree is sometimes called the marmalade-tree, and is, 

 in all probability, the same which Stedman, in his ac- 

 count of Surinam, calls the marmalade box. It is a 

 native of the West Indies and the adjoining coast, 

 and is verj' much cultivated in the gardens there for 

 the sake of its fruit. 



Star Apple — Chrysophylhim Cainito. 



This is also a native of the West Indies. It 

 grows on a moderately-sized spreading tree, with 

 slender, flexile branches. There are some species, 

 or, at least, varieties of the fruit. The star apple, 

 properly so called, bears fruit resembling a large 



