Xanthochymus
(from xanthos, yellow, and chymos, juice; the plants contain an abundance of yellow juice). SYN. Stalagmites. ORD. Guttiferae. A small genus (four species) of stove trees, with the habit of Garcinia (under which Xanthochymus is included by Sir J. D. Hooker, in his "Flora of British India"), inhabiting tropical Asia and Africa, and Madagascar. Sepals and petals five, very rarely four; filaments connate in five, rarely four, erect, distant, pedicellate, spathulate bodies. Berry indehiscent. Three of the species have been introduced. They thrive in a compost of loam and peat; and may be propagated by cuttings of ripened shoots, inserted in sand, under a glass, in strong bottom heat.
X. dulcis (sweet-fruited). fl. cream-white, in fascicles; petals conniving in a globular form; peduncles scarcely longer than the flowers. February. fr. bright yellow, smooth, the size of an apple, with copious yellow pulp, palatable and good. l. opposite, 6in. or more long, oblong, acuminate, coriaceous, entire, bright glossy green, paler beneath. h. 20ft. Molucca Islands, 1820. (B. M. 3088.) X. ovalifolius (oval-leaved). fl. white, 1/5in. to 1/3in. in diameter, the males and females often mixed in one fascicle, but usually the females are fascicled and the males spiked. Summer. fr. deep green, the size of a walnut. l. sub-orbicular to lanceolate, obtuse, 3 1/4in. to 8 1/2in. long. India. A middling-sized tree. SYN. Garcinia ovalifolia.
X. pictorius (painter's).* fl. white; males 3/4in. in diameter, in four to eight-flowered fascicles from the axils of fallen leaves; hermaphrodite ones like the males. Summer. fr. dark yellow, the size of an apple, globose, pointed. l. linear-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 9in. to 18in. long, coriaceous, shining, reticulated. Trunk straight. h. 40ft. India. This tree yields a large quantity of indifferent gamboge. See Fig. 232. (B. F. S. 88; R. H. 1881, p. 13.) SYN. Garcinia Xanthochymus.