Sapotaceae
A natural order of trees or shrubs, with milky juice, inhabiting tropical and sub-tropical regions. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, or very rarely polygamous by abortion, not large, glomerate or fascicled at the nodes or in the axils, rarely solitary or fascicled; calyx inferior, persistent or deciduous; corolla gamopetalous, the tube campanulate or urceolate, or rarely elongated, the limb equal, the lobes equalling in number, or twice or four times as many as, the sepals; stamens affixed to the tube of the corolla, in one or two series, the filaments erect; anthers two-celled; pedicels minutely bracteate or ebracteate. Berry indehiscent, usually two to many-celled. Leaves alternate, very rarely sub-opposite, coriaceous or rarely membranous, entire, penniveined, exstipulate, or rarely with small, cadueous stipules. "Several species of this order are useful to man. The fruits of Lucuma mammosa (the Marmalade of the West Indies) are a very agreeable food, as are those of Achras Sapota and various species of Chrysophyllum, which are much sought after in the Antilles; those of Bassia and Imbricaria, Asiatic genera, are also edible..... Other Sapotaceae, both Asiatic and African (Sideroxylon, Argania), are employed for building purposes, on account of the hardness of the wood, whence the name of Ironwood" (Le Maout and Decaisne). Dichopsis gutta, a Malayan tree, furnishes Gutta Percha. The order comprises about two dozen genera, and 320 species. Examples: Chrysophyllum, Lucuma, Sideroxylon.