THE SAPOTACEOUS FRUITS 341 



monly 3 to 6 inches long, russet-brown in color, the skin 

 thick and woody and the surface somewhat scurfy. The flesh 

 is firm, salmon-red to reddish brown in color, and finely granular 

 in texture. The large elliptic seed can be lifted out of the 

 fruit as easily as that of an avocado; it is hard, brown, and 

 shining, except on the ventral surface, which is whitish and 

 somewhat rough. To one unaccustomed to the exceedingly 

 sweet fruits of the tropics, the flavor of the sapote is at first 

 somewhat cloying because of its richness and lack of acidity. 

 When made into a sherbet, as is done in Habana, it is sure to be 

 relished at first trial. Inferior or improperly ripened sapotes 

 will be found to have a pronounced squash-like flavor. 



Pittier, whose studies of the sapotaceous fruits have done 

 much to clear away the botanical confusion in which they have 

 been involved, considers the sapote to be indigenous to Central 

 America. Outside of its native area it is grown in the West 

 Indies, in South America, and in the Philippines. In Cuba it 

 is particularly abundant and the fruit highly esteemed. Though 

 it has been planted in southeastern Florida it has never suc- 

 ceeded in that region. The limiting factor there seems to be 

 unfavorable soil rather than temperature, while in California 

 it has always succumbed to the cold, even when grown in the 

 most protected situations. 



In the British West Indies the sapote is called mammee- 

 sapota, marmalade-plum, and marmalade-fruit. In the French 

 W T est Indies it is known as sapote and grosse sapote. In Cuba it 

 is called mamey Colorado and, less commonly, mamey zapote. 

 Throughout its native area, southern Mexico and Central 

 America, it is known in Spanish as zapote (from the Nahuatl or 

 Aztec name tzapotl) and this name is used also in Ecuador and 

 Colombia. In the Philippines the term is chico-mamey. The 

 more important botanical synonyms are : Achras mammosa, L., 

 Luruma mammosa, Gaertn., ViteUaria mammosa, Radlk., and 

 Achradelpha mammosa, Cook. The name mamey, improperly 



