Chrysobalanus ellipticus, Chrysobalanus icaco.

Chrysobalanus ellipticus Soland. Rosaceae. Coco Plum.

African tropics. This plant bears a damson-sized fruit with a black, thin skin and is eaten.

Chrysobalanus icaco Linn. Coco Plum.

African and American tropics. This tree-like shrub, with its fruit similar to the damson, grows wild as well as cultivated in the forests along the shores of South America and in Florida. Browne says in Jamaica the fruit is perfectly insipid but contains a large nut inclosing a kernel of very delicious flavor. The fruits in the West Indies, prepared with sugar, form a favorite conserve with the Spanish colonists, and large quantities are annually exported from Cuba. On the African coast it occurs from the Senegal to the Congo. The fruit is eaten by the natives of Angola and, according to Montiero, is like a round, black-purple plum, tasteless and astringent. Sabine says: "the fruit is about the size of an Orleans plum but is rounder, of a yellow color, with a flesh soft and juicy, the flavor having much resemblance to that of noyau."

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.