HOG-PLUM, SPANISH PLUM. and BitAzimAN Prx.m. Names given in the West Indies and other tropical countries to the fruit of certain species of Spondias, a genus which belongs to the nat ural order Anacardiacece. The species are trees and shrubs with pinnate leaves, with terminal leaflets, and flowers in racemes or panicles. Some of them produce very pleasant fruits, among which may be mentioned Spondias pu• puree and Spondies Mee, which are generally called hog-plum in the West Indies, because the fruits are a common food of hogs. Spondias purpurca has fruit about an inch in length, ovate or oblong, purple or variegated with yel low; yellow pulp with a peculiar but agreeable acid and aromatic taste. The fruit of Spondias tuberose, called imbuzeiro in the north of Brazil, is about twice the size of a large gooseberry, oblong, yellowish, with a leathery skin and sweetish-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 tubes, about 18 inches 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 travel ers for the sake of the water, of which each full-grown tuber yields about a pint. An im portant species is the ti or Tahiti apple (Span dies duleis), a very fine fruit of the South Sea Islands. This tree often attains a height of 50 to 60 feet, and, according to Seeman, is laden with fruits averaging a pound each.