70 LAURACEAE. 
PERSEA. 
(Family Lauraceae). 
Shrubs or small or moderate- 
sized trees with aromatic bark: 
evergreen. Twigs moderate, 3, 
angled and minutely fluted: pith 
roundish, continuous, pale. Buds 
solitary or superposed, subsessile 
and ovoid or frequently develop- 
ing the first year or replaced by 
peduncle-sears, the end-bud larger, 
with 3 or 4 exposed scales. Leaf- 
scars alternate, somewhat  ele- 
vated, the lower of each season 
nearly linear and the upper round 
or elliptical: bundle-trace 1, trans- 
verse, compound: stipule-scars 
lacking. Leaves lanceolate, en- 
tire. 
Of recent years the alligator 
pear, or aguacate as it is called 
in Mexico and Central America, 
has become a standard fruit tree 
of Florida and southern California. In our eastern markets, 
where the fruits have been sold from the West Indies for 
many years, they are familiar as large and pear-shaped, with 
smooth thin green skin. As offered at railroad stations in 
Mexico, they are much smaller and rather purple. In Guate- 
mala they are very large, round and with thick skin. 
1. Leaves golden-satiny beneath: small shrub. P. humilis. 
Leaves glabrate or loosely hairy: larger. 2. 
2. Leaves honeycomb-pitted beneath. P. littoralis. 
Leaves not pitted. 3. 
3. Leaves whitened beneath, not veiny. (1). P. borbonica. 
Leaves green, veiny. (Alligator pear). (2). P. gratissima. 
