286 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



the Ghrysophyllvjm Cainito of the West Indies. Both 

 belong to the family Sapotacese, but the flowers and 

 seeds are different. There is a figure of this one in Ruiz 

 and Pavon, Flora Peruviana, vol. iii. pi. 240. It has 

 been transported from Peru, where it is cultivated, to Ega 

 on the Amazon River, and to Para, where it is commonly 

 called ahi or abiu} Ruiz and Pavon say it is wild in 

 the warm regions of Peru, and at the foot of the Andes. 



Marmalade Plum, or Mammae Sapota — Lucuma mam- 

 mosa, Gsertner. 



This fruit tree, of the order Sapotacese and a native 

 of tropical America, has been the subject of several 

 mistakes in works on botany^ There exists no satis- 

 factory and complete illustration of it as yet, because 

 colonists and travellers think it is too well known to 

 send selected specimens of it, such as may be described 

 in herbaria. This neglect is common enough in the 

 case of cultivated plants. The mammee is cultivated in 

 the West Indies and in some warm regions of America. 

 Sagot tells us it is grown in Venezuela, but not in 

 Cayenne.^ I do not find that it has been transported 

 into Africa and Asia, the Philippines * excepted. This 

 is probably due to the insipid taste of the fruit. Hum- 

 boldt and Bonpland found it wild in the forests on the 

 banks of the Orinoco.^ AU authors mention it in the 

 West Indies, but as cultivated or without asserting that 

 it is wUd. In Brazil it is only a garden species. 



Sapodilla — Sapota achras, Miller. 



The sapodUla is the most esteemed of the order 

 Sapotacese, and one of the best of tropical fruits. "An 

 over-ripe sapodilla," says Descourtilz, in his Flore des 

 Antilles, "is melting, and has the sweet perfumes of 

 honey, jasmin, and lily of the valley." There is a very 

 good illustration in the Botanical Magazine, pis. 3111 

 and 3112, and in Tussac, Floi'e des Antilles, i. pi. 5, It 



' Flora Brasil., vol. vii. p. 88. 



' See the synonyms in the Flora Brasiliensis, Tol. vii. p. 66, 



• Sagot, Jmirn. Soc. d'Hortic. de France, 1872, p. 347. 



* Blanco, Fl. de Filipinas, under the name Achras lucuma, 

 ' Nova Genera, iii. p. 240. 



