Sapotacææ

Sapotacææ, a natural order of exogenous plants, consisting of trees and shrubs, often abounding in milky juice. The leaves are leathery, entire, and without stipules. The order comprises about 20 genera and over 200 species. They are natives of the warmer regions of both hemispheres, but are comparatively rare in Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, North-west Africa, and South America. The most important species from an economical point of view is the Gutta-percha Tree (q.v.; Isonandra gutta). The substance called Monesia, an extract from the bark of Chrysophyllum glycyphlœum, employed in France in medicine, is a moderate stomachic excitant, alterative, and mild astringent. The fruit of C. cainito is the Star Apple (q.v.). C. roxburghii, a native of Silhet, also produces a fruit prized by the natives; but neither of these fruits find much favour with Europeans. The Mammee-Sapota, or American Marmalade, is the fruit of Lucuma mammosa, a lofty tree of tropical America and the West Indian Islands (not the Mammee-apple, q.v.). The pulp is luscious, but the kernels abound to a dangerous extent in prussic acid, a very little of one kernel being capable when eaten of causing sickness. The Sapodilla Plum (q.v.) is the fruit of Achras sapota. The flowers of some of the species of Bassia are edible; they are eaten raw or cooked in various ways; those of B. latifolia yield a strong ardent spirit by distillation. Oil is also expressed from the fruit of some of these, which is used in the manufacture of soap and as an inferior lamp-oil and lubricant. B. butyracea and B. parkii—the latter the Stea Tree of South Africa—both yield from kernels of their fruits a fine vegetable-butter. Valuable timbers are produced by some species of this order; one of the Ironwoods (q.v.) is the timber of Sideroxylon inerme. The Galimeta Wood of Jamaica is the timber of Bumelia salicifolia. The flowers of Mimusops elegans, a native of the East Indies, are powerfully aromatic, and yield a fragrant water by distillation, and the seeds abound in oil which is used by painters.