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1258 
PERSEA* gratissima. 
The Avocado Pear. 
ENNEANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. LAURINER. 
PERSEA Plumier. — Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx limbo sexpartito 
sepiüs insequali persistente aut deciduo. Stamina 12, duplici serie dis- 
posita; interiorum tria laciniis interioribus opposita sterilia ; tria laciniis 
exterioribus opposita fertilia basi glandulosa. ^ Anthere quadriloculares. 
Stigma subcapitatum. Drupa calyce persistente sexlobo suffulta. 
Arbores, foliis alternis, magis minusve coriaceis, integerrimis, exstipulatis ; 
pedunculis axillaribus et terminalibus, sepiüs paniculatis et corymbosis.— 
Kunth. synops. 1. 453. 
P. gratissima; foliis elliptico-oblongis obtusiusculis subtüs hirto-pubes- 
centibus glaucescentibusque, floribus corymbosis axillaribus, calycibus 
externè cano-tomentosis, fructu pyriformi. Kunth. l. c. 
Laurus Persea. Jacq. obs. l. p. 37. Swartz obs. 152. Willd. sp. pl. 
2. 480. 
Persea gratissima. Gaertn. fil. fruct. 3. p. 222. sige 
Laurus? foliis oblongo-ovatis, fructu obversè ovato, pericarpio butyraceo. 
Browne jamaic. p. 214. 
The Albecato, Abacado, or Avocado Pear. Sloane jamaic. 2. 133. t. 222. 
f. 2. 
The Avocado, or, as it is often called, Alligator Pear, 
is one of the most esteemed fruits of the West Indies. | In 
this country it is only cultivated in the stove, of which it 1s 
one of the rarest species. 
Our drawing was made in the princely Garden of his 
Grace the Duke of Northumberland, at Syon,—an esta- 
blishment which, whether we view it with regard to the 
* The rsgraíz, or eerta, of the Greeks, was a fruit-tree brought out of 
Ethiopia by the first inhabitants of Egypt; and is supposed to have been the 
Cordia myxa of moderns. But why the name should have been applied to 
an American plant; it would be difficult to explain. 
