144 

 REMARKS ON THE PALTA OR AVOCADO PEAR. 



By William T. Brigham. 



Forty-one years ago the best palta tree in Honolulu was in 

 Judge Montgomery's garden, the place now occupied by the 

 St. Louis College. It was of the purple variety and the judge 

 kindly sent one of these rare fruits to Horace Mann and my- 

 self, who had recently come to these islands. We neither 

 of us liked this fruit, at which the giver expressed his satis- 

 faction, "as there were not enough to go around." 



Near ihe head of Pauoa valley was a very neglected tree, 

 which, in my botanizing rambles, I at first took for a part of 

 the forest, but on examining the fruit found it a small green 

 pear. It was the first tree of the kind I had seen, and I after- 

 wards learned that it had been planted by the Spaniard Manini 

 or Marini, who introduced so many good fruits. On Kauai 

 at the Princeville estate belonging to R. C. Wyllie. Hawaii's 

 greatest Minister of Foreign Afifairs, T found a tree bearing a 

 rough-skinned green fruit, which I learned to like although it 

 was far inferior to those now cultivated in Honolulu. On 

 Hawaii were the largest and oldest palta trees. Mr. Wyllie 

 was consul for Peru or Chili, or perhaps both, and may have 

 imported the fruit, but he was not the first one, for the paltas 

 were here in 1825. 



The wood of the Persca gratissinia is of fine grain and rich 

 color, and at one time was in great demand in England for fur- 

 niture under the name of Barbados mahogany. Specimens in 

 the Bishop Aluseum from one of the large trees of Hilo cer- 

 tainly show a pleasing cabinet wood. 



My object this evening, however, is not to describe all the 

 history and good qualities of this favorite fruit, which I wish 

 we could call by its original Spanish-American name of Palta 

 in place of the absurd avocado or lawyer pear, or the stupid 

 corruption alligator pear. I intend only to give you briefly 

 some of my experience in cultivating this fruit. We here are 

 all too ready to merely plant the seed and do nothing more ; 

 we "push the button" and leave the rest to Providence. This 

 institute is established, I believe, to help us to make some 

 exertion ourselves, and by so doing better our products. 



In 1888 I was supplied with very good- paltas of the pur- 



