386 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



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

 so soft and compressible, that the people of Jamaica 

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



WII<D PLUMS Jlchras. 



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 fruit are 

 the sappodilla plum (Jlchras sapota), and the mamnaee 

 sapota (Jlchras 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 very much cultivated in the gardens there for 

 the sake of its fruit. 



STAR APPLE Chrysophyllum 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 



