STANDEE Y TREES AND SHRUfeS OF MEXICO, 291 



and other condiments, but sometimes it is prepared with sugar or wine. It is 

 eaten by all kinds of domestic animals. 



A large number of therapeutic uses are reported for the plant. The pulp is 

 credited with hastening the suppuration of wounds and is reputed to have 

 aphrodisiac and emmenagogue properties. The rind is used to expel intestinal 

 parasites. The seeds contain a milliy juice which turns red on exposure, and 

 which produces an indelible stain on linen. Ground and mixed with cheese, 

 meal, etc., the seeds are used to poison rats and mice. An ointment of the pul- 

 verized seeds is sometimes employed as a rubefacient, and a decoction of them, 

 or a piece of a seed placed in the cavity of a tooth, is believed to cure toothache. 

 The leaves and barli are employed in domestic medicine because of the pectoral, 

 stomachic, emmenagogiie, resolutive, and antiper iodic properties ascribed to 

 them. The seeds are used also for the manufacture of various trinkets. 



The avocado is noted by all the early writers upon tropical American plants. 

 Oviedo (Lib. IX, Cap. XXIII) gives a very full account of the tree and of 

 the fruit, which he describes as superior to the pears of Castile. Acosta gives 

 a brief account of the fruit, under the name " palta." SahagOn writes the 

 name " auacatl," and states that there are also other kinds besides the common 

 one: The " tlacaglauacatl." which women nursing dare not eat, because the 

 fruit causes diarrhoea in the children nursed; and the " quilauacatl," or 

 " green aguacate," a form with green skin, " and very good to eat." He states 

 that the powdered seeds were employed as a remetly for dandruff. Hernandez 

 also gives a long account ^ of the avocado, in a chapter entitled " De Ahuaca 

 Quauhitl, seu Arbore Querciformi butiraceo fructii." He describes the leaves 

 as fragrant, and consequently doubtless refers to the Mexican type, Persea 

 americana drymifoUa. He states that by pressure oil w^as obtained from the 

 seeds and used to cure eruptions of the skin. 



4a. Persea americana drymifolia (Schlecht. & Cham.) Blake, Joum. Wash- 

 ington Acad. Sci. 10: 1.5. 1920. 



Persea drymifolia Schlecht. & Cham. Linnaea 6: 365. 1831. 



Nuevo Le6n to Sinaloa, Veracruz, and Puebla ; type from Papantla, Vera- 

 cruz. Guatemala ; cultivated in Ecuador. 



Leaves usually smaller than in P. anverioana., elliptic or oval, acute, or ac- 

 uminate ; fruit thin-skinned. " Aguacate Oloroso." 



This is the common Mexican avocado, and the vernacular names reported 

 above apply also, presumably, to the variety. 



5. Persea long'ipes (Schlecht.) Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15': 55. 1864. 

 Lauras longipes Schlecht. Linnaea 7: 390. 1832. 



Veracruz ; type from Hacienda de la Laguna ; perhaps also in Guerrero. 

 Tree or shrub ; leaves oblong or lanceolate, 8 to 15 cm. long, attenuate, green 

 and lustrous above, paler beneath. 



6. Persea veraguensis Seem. Bot. Voy. Herald 193. 1854. 

 Oaxaca and Chiapas. Type from CliiriquI, Panama. 



Tree, sometimes 20 meters high ; leaves 8 to 17 cm. long, acuminate, with 

 conspicuous venation, the pubescence of the lower surface somewhat lustrous; 

 flowers sericeous. 



7. Persea podadenia Blake, Contr. Gray Herb. n. ser. 52: 62. 1917. 

 Sonora, Durango, and Jalisco ; type from San Ramon, Durango. 



Shrub or tree; leaves 9 to 16 cm. long, acute or acutish, pale beneath, 

 petiolate. "laurel" (.Jalisco) ; "laurel de la sierra" (Sonora). 



Leaves with a flavor similar to that of sassafras; used for seasoning food. 



' Thesaurus 89. 1651. 



