GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA 
31^. Maxillahia concava. Lhidley. A pale yellow-flowered Epiphyte, from Guateuiala, 
belonging to Orchids. Blossoms in November. (Fig. 159, diminished, with a magnified view of 
the lip.) 
Oue of the less interesting of the racemose Maxillavias. 
The flowers are pale yellow ; the lip is almost truncate, 
concave, bluntly 3-toothed, with the middle 
lobe somewhat fleshy, and tuberculated at 
the edge ; marked with rose-coloured 
veins, with a long naxTow ridge in the 
middle, 3-lobed at the pomt. It is nearest 
M, hvactmiay but its flowers are smaller, 
the bracts very small and bristly, and the 
lip of quite another form. 
313, 
Perse A 
GRATISSIMA. 
Gmrtner. [alias Laurus Persea 
Lhmcem.) A tree from the West 
Indies, where it produces the fruit 
called the Alligator Pear, 
green, downy, in panicles, 
to the order of Laurels* 
Flowers 
Belongs 
Pear 
am 
known to be produced in Europe; nor am 
I aware that it has ever flowered in our 
stoves, save at Syon and Kew, la the 
West Indies it is highly valued, and cul- 
tivated, and in tropical America generally. 
It is presumed to be an aboriginal of 
these countries ; though some say im- 
ported to the islands from the South 
American con^nent. Why called A Uifjator 
Pear is not very evident. Perhaps the 
first word is a cori*uption of Agtia<:atej one 
of the names by which, according to 
Uiloa, it is known in Lima. The fruit 
is peai'-shapeJ, yellow or brownish-green, 
often tinged wath deep purple. Between tlie skin and the har3 seed is a pale butyraceous substance, interspersed with 
greenish veins, and this is much eaten by all classes of people; its taste somewhat resembling butter or marrow, and 
hence is called the « vegetable marrow:' and this is so rich and mild that most people make use of some spice or pungent 
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VOL. II. 
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