446 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



The white sapote is a medium-sized erect or spreading tree, 

 having palmately compound leaves, small inconspicuous flowers, 

 and yellowish green fruits the size of an orange. The fruits 

 have a thin membranous skin, yellowish flesh of soft melting 

 texture and sweet or slightly bitter flavor, and one to five large 

 oval or elliptic seeds. 



In its native region the white sapote is a fruit of the high- 

 lands. Throughout Mexico and Guatemala it is found at ele- 

 vations of 2000 to 3000 feet, and occasionally as high as 9000 

 feet. It is not grown in regions subject to heavy rainfall. 



It has borne fruit at La Mortola, in southern Italy, and is 

 occasionally seen elsewhere on the Riviera. It is said also to 

 have fruited in the island of Jersey. Although introduced into 

 California from Mexico about 1810, it has not yet become 

 extensively cultivated in that state, and large trees are rare. 

 One of the oldest, believed to have been planted more than a 

 century ago, is growing on De La Guerra Street in Santa 

 Barbara. A number of younger trees, most of them propa- 

 gated by F. Franceschi and distributed about 1895, are fruiting 

 in various parts of southern California; although some of 

 these produce small bitter fruits, others bear large ones of deli- 

 cious flavor. In Florida the species has not been cultivated 

 so long as in California, but it has proved quite successful in 

 the southern part of the state. 



The Aztec name for this fruit is cochiztzapotl, meaning " sleep- 

 producing sapote." It is commonly known in Mexico at the 

 present day as zapote bianco (white sapote). In Guatemala it 

 is called matasano. 



The fruit is usually eaten fresh, but attempts have been 

 made in Central America to prepare a sweet preserve from it on 

 a commercial scale. Some of the early writers considered the 

 white sapote unwholesome, and stated that it would induce 

 sleep if indulged in too freely, but recent experience does not 

 indicate that there are grounds for such beliefs. Francisco 



