6 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



orchard of prrafted or budded trees, whereas in the United States 

 there is scarcely a seedlinis: orchard to be found. 



Mr. Popenoe, whose familiarity with American grafted varieties 

 of avocados enabled him to select commercially promising sorts, in- 

 spected thousands of avocado trees growing in dooryards and coffee 

 plantations. After judging the productivity and vigor of the trees, 

 sami)ling the fruits, and noting the time of their ripening, he photo- 

 graphed both trees and fruits and sent in bud wood for propagating 

 purposes, with a careful pomological description of each variety. 

 In this number he describes the following avocado introductions: 

 Nos. 43476, 43486, 43487, 43560, 43602, and 43932 to 43935. Descrip- 

 tions of other varieties will be found in other inventories. 



To the best varieties established as budded trees in our gi-een- 

 houses and field stations, special names have been given. These 

 names are all taken from the Maya language, the native language 

 of the aborigines of Guatemala, and, as they are not difficult to pro- 

 nounce, it is believed that they should be retained by American hor- 

 ticulturists. Thev will serve to identifv the varieties as of Guate- 

 malan origin, obviate the difficulty which always arises from an in- 

 discriminate naming by growers, and stand as an acknowledgment 

 on our part of the right of one country to have its gifts to another 

 bear the characteristic names of the country of their origin. The 

 time has gone by when international courtesy should permit us to 

 bring in from a foreign country a new plant variety, strip it of the 

 name it bears in its native home, and give it either the name of its 

 introducer or some commonplace English name. 



It is particularly desired to record here our Government's appre- 

 ciation of the courtesies extended to Mr. Popenoe by the officials 

 and the people of Guatemala. The plants which his expedition 

 brought in can not fail to become more important as the years pass, 

 and the Guatemalan avocado will constitute a most valuable sfift 

 from our sister Republic, rivaling perhaps even the gift of the orange 

 from China to Italy or the potato from Peru to Ireland. 



With the rapid advance being made in avocado culture in America, 

 Mr. Popenoe's discovery in Guatemala of a new and remarkaljle and 

 hitherto undescribed relative of the avocado becomes a historical fact 

 of more than usual importance. The anay {HufeJandia army, Xo. 

 43432), as it is called, is a tall forest tree of low altitudes and there- 

 fore tender. Its fruits are edible, but not comparable to avocados. 



The Guatemalan coycS {Persea schiedeana, No. 43931), produces 

 fruit that rivals even the avocado in quality, though it is apparently 

 strictly tropical in character. 



The chayote, or ''mirliton" as it has been called for j^ears by the 

 Creoles of New Oilcans, was represented in this country until recently 

 l)y two, or at most three, rather distinct varieties. Messrs. Cook and 



