i8 



development has been normal, the tree will flower in its third year, 

 whether it has permanent branches or not. I have seen many two 

 years old trees with flowers and fruit, but I would consider this 

 premature, and indicating that something is wrong with the tree. 



The season of flowering is from February to the beginning 

 of May in the Zacualpa district in Mexico, and in Western 

 Guatemala. The earliest fruits begin to ripen in May and ripe 

 seeds can be had until August. 



The flowers are unisexual, but both sexes occur on the same 

 tree. I have often heard it stated by planters and others, that 

 there are two distinct trees, the male and female. It is also said, 

 and generally believed, that the "male trees" do not produce 

 latex as well as the "female." In my experience all the older 

 trees carry both male or staminate and female or pistillate flowers. 

 While the trees are young they often have only staminate flowers 

 but after reaching a more mature age both sexes are present. I 

 think we can safely abandon the idea that some trees are male and 

 therefore no "milkers," while others are female and good milk 

 producers. Such an analogy is rather far fetched and has a strong 

 flavour of ignorance. 



I have found trees on which the female flowers have been 

 sterile on account of insufficient development of the ovary. Such 

 trees naturally do not produce fruit. Whether there are any 

 permanently sterile trees is a question yet to be investigated. 

 I have seen numerous instances where a tree had no flowers 

 one year but developed a profusion of both staminate and pistillate 

 flowers the next year. I have also noticed cases where a tree 

 had an abundance of fruit one year and none the following. 

 Whether there is any regularity in this development of flowers and 

 fruits I am not in a position to say at present. 



The idea that a sterile tree, or at least a tree not carrying fruit, 

 produces less latex than a fruiting one is erroneous. I have noticed 

 instances of trees with plenty of fruit giving little or no latex, and 

 again of non-fruiting trees with an abundance of latex. It seems 

 though as if a tree generally yielded more latex while in fruit than 

 during any other time of the year. 



The staminate flowers consist of imbricated scaly flat pods, 

 which open along the edge like a clam shell, with clusters of yel- 

 lowish stamens on the inner side. These pods or heads are up to 

 one inch long, as a rule, but another kind of smaller staminate 

 flowers are found immediately below a cluster of pistillate flowers. 

 The stamens in these semi-spherical heads often have pollen grains 

 which are shrivelled up and apparently sterile. 



The female flowers have numerous ovaries on a common disc- 

 like receptacle or cup, covered with scales larger than those of the 

 staminate flowers. Each pistil carries two straight, scarred, two- 

 parted styles. 



The fruit is first green, and when ripening gradually turns 

 a deep red, finally fading into an orange colour. From eight to 

 thirty fruits mature in each cluster, and a much larger number 



