Satinleaf 



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I. SATINLEAF 



GENUS CHRYSOPHYLLUM LINN^US 



Species Chrysophyllum oliviforme Linnaeus 



Chrysophylliim monopyrenum Svvartz 



HIS small evergreen tree or shrub of the West Indies also occurs in 

 peninsular Florida and on the Keys, but is not abundant there; its 

 maximum height is lo meters, with a trunk diameter of 3 dm. 



The branches are rather stout, ascending and somewhat crooked. 

 The bark is 6 to 8 mm. thick, shallowly fissured into plates, with a scaly brown 

 surface. The twigs are brownish hairy at first, becoming smooth, reddish brown 

 to gray. The leaves are persistent, leathery, oblong, elhptic or ovate, 3 to 10 cm. 

 long, sharp or short taper-pointed, rounded or abruptly tapering at the base, 

 revolute on the margin, bluish green, smooth and shining with deeply impressed 

 midrib above, silky with shining red brown hairs beneath; the leaf-stalk is stout, 

 about I cm. long. The flowers 

 are small, short-stalked, in 

 few-flowered axillary clusters 

 on the new growth; calyx 

 densely silky, cup-shaped, 

 deeply 5-parted, the sepals 

 nearly orbicular, and rounded 

 at the apex; corolla white, 5 

 mm. across, with 5 suborbic- 

 ular, blunt lobes, without 

 appendages or staminodes ; 

 stamens 5, included, their 

 anthers nearly sessile and 

 heart-shaped; ovary 5-celled, 

 narrowed upward into a short 

 style and terminated by a 5- 

 lobed stigma. The fruit is a nodding, usually soHtary oval berr\' about 2 cm. 

 long, dark purple, its skin thick, tough, and slightly roughened, its flesh juicy, 

 sweet but insipid, usually i-seeded; seed compressed, about 12 mm. long, hght 

 brown and shining, with a white, pulpy coat. 



The wood is hard, dense, strong, light brown, its specific gravity about 0.94. 



The genus is a tropical one with probably 60 species of trees and shrubs, mostly 

 American; they have milky juice and produce edible fruits, some of which are of 

 considerable importance in tropical countries, such as the type species, Chrys- 

 ophyllum Cainito Linnaeus, a native of the West Indies, which produces in several 

 varieties the well-known Star-apple, and is largely cultivated in warm countries. 



Fig. 704. Satinleaf. 



