HOG PLUM, SPANISH PLUM, and BRAZILIAN PLUM, names giVen in the West Indies and other tropical countries to the fruit of certain species of spondias. The genus spon dias belongs to the natural order anacardiacece, or, according to some botanists, to a small order called spondiacea, differing from anacardiacece in the want of a resinous juice, and in the drupe having a nut with 2 to 5 cells and seeds, instead of one cell and one seed. The species of spondias are trees and shrubs with pinnate leaves, which have a terminal leaflet, and flowers in racemes or panicles. Some of them produce very pleasant fruits, among which may be reckoned AS purpurea and 8. lutea; the species generally called hog plum in the West Indies, because they are a common food of hogs, which revel in their abundance. S. purpurea has fruit about an inch in length, ovate or oblong, purple or variegated with yellow; the pulp yellow, with a peculiar but agreeable acid and aro matic taste. The fruit of S. tuberosa, called Imbuzeiro in the n. of Brazil, is about
twice the size of a large gooseberry, oblong, yellowish, with a leathery skin and sweet ish acid pulp. A much-esteemed Brazilian dish is prepared of milk, curds, sugar, and the pulp of this fruit, from which also a refreshing beverage is made for use in fevers. The tree is remarkable for the numerous round black tubers—about 8 in. in diameter —which it produces on its widely spreading roots, and which are very cellular, and full of water. They are evidently intended for the wants of the tree in the dry season, and are often dug out by travelers for the sake of the water, of which each tuber yields about a pint. Closely allied to spondtas is the genus poupartia, to which belongs the Vi or Tahiti Apple, formerly spondias duleis, a very fine fruit of the South sea islands.