1101 

 Notes from Correspondents abroad. 



THE COYO OR SHUCTE 



Mr. Wilson Popenoe , Agricultural Explorer, writes 

 from Guatemala City, February 10, 1917: 



"In the mountains of northern and eastern Guate- 

 mala there grows a fruit closely resembling the avo- 

 cado, yet sufficiently different in foliage and flower 

 to indicate that it is a distinct species, propably 

 as yet undescribed botanically. For the time being 

 it must, therefore, be termed Persea sp. In eastern 

 Guatemala, around Zacapa, Gualan, Chiquimula, and El 

 Rancho it is called shucte, chucte or sometimes chaucte, 

 while in the northern part of the Republic , --immed- 

 iately across the great Sierra de las Minas,--it is 

 known under the names coyo and coyocte. These latter 

 names have been thought by some to indicate two dis- 

 tinct fruits, perhaps distinct species, but an exam- 

 ination of several trees in the Alta Verapaz shows 

 that they are in reality the same. Apparently the 

 Indians call the cultivated fruit (for it is often 

 grown in their gardens and around their huts) coyo, 

 and the wild tree, which is abundant in the mountains, 

 coyocte. The suffix te in the Quekchi language is 

 said to mean tree; coyocte would therefore mean noth- 

 ing more than coyo tree. 



"In some sections of the Alta Verapaz the coyo 

 is fully as common as the avocado, and seems to be 

 held by the Indians in practically the same high 

 esteem. An American coffee planter who lives in this 

 region tells me that he considers the coyo even super- 

 ior to the avocado in flavor, and after testing It I 

 am inclined to agree with him. 



"The coyo must be considered, then, an unusually 

 interesting new fruit, but it has certain defects 

 which make it seem, on the whole, inferior to the 

 avocado. It has, for example, a large seed in most 

 cases, and the flesh is sometimes disagreeably fi- 

 brous. But it is quite variable, like its relative 

 the avocado, and some coyos are much superior to 

 others . 



"The coyo tree looks, at first glance, much like 

 an avocado tree, and usually reaches about the same 

 size. It is distinguishable from the avocado by the 

 character of Its leaves, which, upon close examina- 

 tion, are seen to differ from those of the avocado in 

 form, to be larger, and to have more or less brownish 



