2 



8ILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



LAURACE^. 



Of Persea, as it is now limited^ about fifty species ^ are distinguished ; they are confined to the 

 New World and to the Canary Islands^ where one endemic species is found.^ In America the genus 

 is distributed from the coast region of the southern United States^ inhabited by two species, to Brazil 

 and Chile, where, with a single species,^ it finds its most southern home. During the tertiary epoch 

 Persea extended to the middle plateau of North America ^ and to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, 

 where, in deposits of gold-bearing gravel, traces of an immediate ancestor of one of the existing North 



played their part in the miocene and 



species long 



American species has been found ; and several 

 pliocene forests of central Europe.^ 



The most useful species, Persea Persea^ the Avocado or Alligator Pear, produces edible fruit 

 which is esteemed in all tropical countries j and many of the species yield hard dark-colored handsome 

 wood valued in cabinet-making. 



Persea is not seriously injured by insects or fungal diseases. 



8 



The 



generic name, used by Theophrastus to distinguish a tree of the Orient, was transferred by 



Plunder ^ to one of the tropical American species and was afterward adopted by Linnaeus. 



jEq 



bh, Nov, Gen. et Spec. ii. 157. — islands soou after their settlement by Europeans (Browne, NaL 

 C. G. Nees ab Esenbeck, Zmncea, Hist. Jam, 214. — Jacquin, Obs, pt. i. 38), and through cultivation 



viii. 49 ; Syst. Laur. 123. — Seemann, BoL Voy. Herald^ 193. — A. 

 Richard, Fl. Cub. iii. 185. 



W, 



XV. Dt. i. 43 : Martius Fl 



pt. ii. 151. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. iii. 71. — Mez, Jahrb 



Monog 



Indica 



to have spread gradually over all the tropical regions of America, 

 where now it often grows spontaneously. It was introduced into 

 India about the middle of the eighteenth century, and is generally 

 cultivated as a fruit-tree in all the tropical parts of the Old World, 

 growing sometimes ^vithout the assistance of man (Hasskarl, PL 

 C. G. Nees ab Jav. Rar. 213. — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt, i. 913. — Brandis, Forest 



Esenbeck, Syst. Laur. 135. — Meisner, De Candolle Prodr. I. c. 52. Fl. Brit. Ind. 378. 

 Laurus Indica, Linnaeus, Spec. 370 (excl. Hab. Virginia) (1753). 

 Willdenow, Spec. ii. pt. i. 480. — 



140. — Webb & Berthelot. Phvh 



290) 



— The cultivated fruit is pear-shaped, apple-shaped, or ellipsoidal, 



Buch, Phys. Beschr. Canar. Ins. sometimes four or five inches in length, and yellow or greenish 



gr. Canar. sec. iii. 224, t. 204. yellow often tinged with purple ; it consists of a thick rather tough 



Diet. Suppl. iii. 322 (1813). skin inclosing ct thick firm yellow buttery substance marked by 



>, which is often planted as an green veins, and a large oblong seed covered with a hard rough 



ornamental tree in southern Europe, is one of the most valuable coat. The flesh, wliieh resembles marrow in texture and somewhat 



Teneriffi 



The 



vinatico 



in flavor, is rather insipid. 



wme 



mahogany, a hard close-grained deep-colored wood much used in 



cabinet-making. (See Naudin, Manuel de VAcclimateur, 399.) people who have become accustomed to its peculiar taste. Birds 



s Persea Lingue, C. G. Nees ab Esenbeck, L c. 157 (1836) ; and other domestic animals eagerly devour alligator pears ; and 



48. — Mez, L c. 169. 



they are often used for fattening hogs on account of the delicate 

 4 Lesquereux, Rep. U. S. Geolog. Surv. vi. 75, t. 28, f, 1 ; 76, t flavor they impart to the flesh. The leaves are considered balsamic 



Western 



West 



(ux, Mem. Mus 



Fossil Plants been recommended in the treatment of syphilis and as a cure for 



bruises (Barham, Hart. Amer. 10. — Lunau, Hort. Jam. l 38). Oil 

 « SaipoTta,OriginePaleontologiquedesArbres,222.-Zitte\,Handb. employed for lighting is pressed from the pulp; and from the 



Nevada) 



Paloeontolog . ii. 496. 



ink 



m-y 



Laurus Persea, Linnaeus, Spec. 370 (1753). — Swartz, Obs. 152. 

 Willdenow, Spec. L c. 

 till. iii. 14, t. 3. 



449 



marking linen is obtained (Treasury of Botany, ii. 867). 



Of the popular names of this tree and of its fruit, Alligator Pear 

 Tussac, FL An- has no sense or meaning ; Avocado or Avocat is believed to be a 



Persea gratissima, Gaertner f. Fruct. iii. 222, t. 221 (1805). 



uacata 



Bot. Reg. xv. t. 1258. — Sprengel, I. c. 

 4580. — Grisebach, L c. — Mez, /. c. 145. 



Mag. Ixxv 



America 



are confined to that genus, and none of them cause serious diseases. 



Sassafras, Schweinitz, and Nummularia 



Th.s tree, of which several varieties are recognized (see Mez, have been recorded on Persea Borbonia, as well as on Sassafras, but 

 I c), was probably "^dxgenous m southern Mexico and Central appear to be less common on the former than on the latter. The 

 America (A. de Candolle On,.n. des Plantes ^UHvees, 232), .nd leaves are sometimes attacked by two spot diseases caused by PA,Z- 



possibly in eastern Peru, where it was commonly cultivated when 

 the country was discovered by the Spaniards (Acosta, HisL Nat 

 Ind. 256) ; it appears to have been carried to the West Indian 



losticta micropunctata, Cooke, and Cercospora purpurea, Cooke. 



Nov. PL Am. Gen. 44 



