3 1 8. SAPOTA ACHRAS SAPODILLA. 31 



5-8-cleft with an internal lobe-like appendage (staminodium) at each sinus and a 

 short tube; disk none; stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla and opposite 

 them inserted on the tube ; anthers 2-celled, subextrorse, longitudinally dehiscent ; 

 pistil with ovary sessile, usually 5-celled, with simple style and terminal stigma, 

 and containing a solitary anatropous ovule. Fruit a berry with persistent calyx 

 at base and tipped with remnants of the style, usually i-seeded, the seed con- 

 taining a large straight embryo with or without albumen. 



Trees, shrubs and vines with milky juice and of wide distribution 

 throughout the warmer regions of the globe, some species producing 

 valuable timbers or fruits and one producing the gutta percha of com- 

 merce. The family consists of about 400 species of 35 genera, of which 

 6 genera are represented in the trees of the United States, all southern. 



GEXUS SAPOTA MILLER. 



Leaves evergreen alternate and clustered at the ends of the branchlets, thick, 

 coriaceous, oblong, mostly obtuse or acute at apex, cuneate at base, with entire 

 revolute margin, smooth dark green above, duller and with prominent straight 

 mid-rib and obscure veins beneath ; petioles */ 2 to ^4 in. long. Flowers small on 

 rusty pubescent stalks in the axils of the leaves of the season, perfect; calyx 

 rusty, with 6 bluntly pointed lobes in 2 series, corolla 6-lobed, whitish, scarcely 

 longer than the lobes of the calyx; stamens 6, with arrow-shaped anthers, pistil 

 with obovoid brown hairy ovary, exserted style and small terminal stigma. 

 Fruit, though technically a berry resembling a russet apple, subglobose, 1^2 to 3 

 in. in diameter, with usually rough brown surface and at first with greenish very 

 firm flesh of austere flavor and with milky very glutinous juice, but soon 

 becoming tender, of delicious pear-like flavor, pinkish yellow, with watery juice 

 and agreeable cdcr. It contains 4 or 5 nearly black shining flattened seeds 

 radiating edgewise from the central axis and with long white scar on inner edge. 



A genus of the following single species taking its name from the 

 native \Yest Indian name of the tree. 



318. SAPOTA ACHRAS MILLER. 



SAPODILLA. CHICLE-TREE. 



Ger., SappadilL Fr., Sapotillier. 



Sp., Nispero (Cen. and So. Amer.), Chico-zapote (Mex.). 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER : See ordinal and generic descriptions, this being the 

 only species. 



A shapely tree attaining in Florida the height of 30 or 40 ft. (i2m.) 

 with compact rounded top of handsome evergreen foliage and a trunk 

 sometimes i ft. (0.3001.) or more in diameter. This is covered with a 



