THALAM1 FLORAE. 
13(3 
This is a lofty tree, with spreading' branches. The fruit is 
held in some esteem. The fleshy and edible portion is yellow, 
and of a sweetish somewhat aromatic taste, bearing a resem- 
blance to that of the carrot, and of a peculiar odour, it 
is eaten plain, or in slices, with wine and sugar, or preserved 
in sugar. The seeds are very bitter ; but no other property 
has hitherto been ascribed to them. A liqueur has been ob- 
tained by distillation from the flowers infused in spirits of wine, 
known in Martinique by the name of Creme des Creoles. The 
gum, obtained from the stem and branches, is employed by the 
Negroes as an application to extract chigoes : dissolved in lime 
juice, it destroys maggots in sores at a single dressing; and an 
infusion of the bark is astringent, and is useful to strengthen 
the recent cicatrices of sores. The tree, from the root being 
fusiform, is not easily transplanted. The French name of the 
fruit is aubricot sauvage : the Spaniards, like the English, retain 
the Carib designation. 
III. Calopiiyllum. 
Calycine sepals 0-2-4, coloured. Petals 4. Sta- 
• mens numerous, polyadelphous at the base, or free : 
anthers oblong. Style thick : stigma simple or capi- 
tate. Drupe globose or ovate, with the nut from 
abortion 1- rarely 2-seeded . — De Cand. 
Trees, with the nerves of the leaves transversely parallel, and 
with the flowers racemose. — Name, from x aXog beautiful , and 
cpvXkov a leaf. 
1. Calophyllum Calaba. Santa Maria. 
Leaves ovate obtuse, flowers hermaphrodite or sta- 
meniferous, racemes lateral short. 
Mali Persicse Mammese diet® folio .arbor, Sloane, Cat. 180. 
— Arbor altissima foliis oblongis nitidissimis nervosis, Browne , 
372. — Calophyllum Calaba, Jacq. Amer. 269. t. 165. — Swartz, 
Obs. 21 6. — De Cand. Prod. I. 562. 
HAB. Damp woods. 
FL. October, November. 
A lofty tree. Leaves shortly petiolate, ovate, obovate, or ob- 
long, obtuse, emarginate, thick, leathery, shining, about 4 inches 
in length. Racemes lateral, few-flowered : flowers white, frag- 
rant, polygamous. Calycine sepals 2, subrotund, concave, ob- 
tuse with a small point, coloured, deciduous. Petals subro- 
tund, concave. Stamens in the fertile flowers 10; in the bar- 
ren about 60 ; filaments short : anthers oblong. Ovary subro- 
tund : style none : stigma capitate. Drupe, according to Jac- 
quin, green, with the rind thin : nut hard, smooth, ash-coloured. 
This is a common tree, in the damp mountain districts, on 
