458 BLAKE: THE ANAY 



of avocado {Per sea americana). They are lo to 15 cm. long, 

 ellipsoid-pyriform, sometimes curved, sometimes pointed at apex, 

 often with sharply defined neck, with the body slightly com- 

 pressed, and smooth, glossy, purplish black surface. The skin is 

 very thin and membranous, adhering closely to the firm, oily, 

 rather scanty flesh. This is divided into two zones of color, 

 equal in thickness, the outer pale green, the inner greenish 

 cream-color, both being more sharply defined than is ordinarily 

 the case in the cultivated avocado. The flesh has a rich, bland 

 flavor, like that of a very good avocado, but faintly sweetish. 

 The large, obovoid seed, with the pointed end toward the base 

 of the fruit, has a thick, almost fibrous, outer seed coat and a 

 membranous inner one closely including the cotyledons, but not 

 always reaching to their apex. The pubescent plumule lies im- 

 mediately at the base of the cotyledons, while in the avocado it 

 is located some distance above this point. The fruits fall while 

 still hard, ripening in two or three days, and germinating freely 

 on the ground beneath the parent tree. Most of the specimens 

 found by Mr. Popenoe had been attacked by insects, which 

 tunneled through the seeds. 



The notes from which this description of the fruit has been 

 drawn up were made by Mr. Popenoe on his first visit to the 

 trees. On a later visit, on January 17, 191 7, a mozo was found 

 who ascended one of the trees by means of a near-by palm and 

 threw down branchlets with leaves, young fruit, and a very few 

 flowers. Study of these shows that the anay is not a Per sea, 

 as Mr. Popenoe at first supposed, but an undescribed species of 

 the genus Hufelandia, which is at once distinguished from the 

 avocado {Persea americana) and its near relatives by the fact 

 that the anthers are 2 -celled instead of 4-celled. 



Since collecting the anay at Mazatenango, on the west coast 

 of Guatemala, Mr. Popenoe has found it at Chama, on the Rio 

 Chisoy in the Usumacinta basin in Alta Verapaz, northeastern 

 Guatemala, at an altitude of about 300 meters, although no 

 specimens were obtained. It is the belief of Mr. Popenoe that 

 the name of the old Maya settlement Anaite, farther north in 



