292 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Peru/ at Tarapoto, in Eastern Peru,^ and on the frontiers 

 of Mexico and of the United States towards California.^ 

 It is sometimes naturalized in clearings near gardens.^ It 

 is probably in this manner that its area has extended 

 north and south from Peru. 



Avocado, or Alligator Pear — Fersea gratissima, 

 Gsertner. 



The avocado pear is one of the most highly prized 

 of tropical fruits. It belongs to the order Laurinese. 

 It is like a pear containing one large stone, as is well 

 shown in Tussac's illustrations, Flore des Antilles, iii. pi. 

 3, and in the Botanical Magazine, pi. 4580. The com- 

 mon names are absurd. The origin of that of alligator 

 is unknown; avocado is a corruption of the Mexican 

 ahuacct, or aguacate. The botanical name Fersea has 

 nothing to do with the i^ersea of the Greeks, which was 

 a Cordia. Clusius,^ writing in 1601, says that the avo- 

 cado pear is an American fruit tree introduced into a 

 garden in Spain ; but as it is widely spread in the colo- 

 nies of the old world, and has here and there become 

 almost wild,^ it is possible to make mistakes as to its 

 origin. This tree did not exist in the gardens of British 

 India at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It 

 had been introduced into the Sunda Isles '^ in the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, and in 1750 into Mauritius and 

 Bourbon.^ 



In America its actual area in a wild state is of un- 

 common extent. The species has been found in forests, 

 on the banks of rivers, and on the sea-shore from Mexico 

 and the West Indies as far as the Amazon.^ It has not 



* Ruiz and Pa von, Flor. Peniv., ii. p. 37. 



' Spruce, n. 4143, in Boissier's herbarium. 

 3 Asa Gray, Bot. of Califor., i. p. 538. 



* Baker, Fl. of Ilaurit., p. 216. ^ Clnsius, Historia, p. 2. 



® For instance in Madeira, according to Grisebacli, Fl. of Brit. W. Ind., 

 p. 280; in Mauritius, the Seychelles and Rodriguez, according to Baker, 

 Flora of Mauritius, p. 290. 



^ It is not in Rumphius. « Aublet, Guyane, i. p. 364. 



^ Meissner, in de CandoUe, Prodrovius, vol. xv. part 1, p. 52 ; and Flora 

 Brasil., vol. v. p. 158. For Mexico, Hernandez, p. 89 ; for Venezuela 

 and Para, Nees, LauHnece, p. 129; for Eastern Peru, Poeppig, Exsicc, 

 seen by Meissner. 



