c 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 509 



assumed distinct commercial importance in southern Florida. It 

 occupies a rather unique position among tree fruits, inasmuch as it is 

 chiefly used as a salad, so that it has been very properly designated 

 b}' Collins k4 a salad fruit." The name "alligator pear," under which 

 it is known to English-speaking people in Florida and the West 

 Indies, and which is commonly applied to it in our markets, is a 

 regrettable misnomer, as the species belongs to the laurel family, is 

 subtropical in its climatic requirements, and has little in common with 

 the pear. The forms commonly found in Florida are almost tropical, 

 enduring little more frost than the mango, though a form introduced 

 into the United States from Mexico by the Division of Pomology in 

 1893 is proving considerably hardier both in California and in Florida 

 than the sorts usualh^ grown. 



While avocados have long been prized in the West Indies and 

 Florida for home consumption, there does not appear to have been 

 any considerable demand for them in northern markets until about 

 1887, when Mr. P. W. Reasoner notes 6 that one firm in the New York 

 market handled from 300 to 500 West Indian fruits per week during 

 the season from June to November. Shipments from south Florida 

 to northern markets began about as soon as express transportation 

 was available, and many small plantings of seedlings are now found on 

 the east coast, mostly below Palm Beach, and on the neighboring 

 keys. The seedlings are exceeding!}" variable in productiveness and 

 in the size, form, color, flavor, and time of ripening of the fruit, as 

 noted by Rolfs/ and not until its bud propagation was mastered was it 

 possible for planters to perpetuate particular individual varieties. 



The earliest commercial budding appears to have been done by Mr. 

 George B. Cellon, Miami, Fla., in 1901, and since that time budded 

 trees of several desirable varieties have been planted in considerable 

 numbers in that region. From the commercial standpoint one of the 

 most important features is lateness of ripening, so that the fresh-picked 

 fruit can be marketed in the North from October to December. Of 

 the varieties that are known to be of this character, the "Trapp" has 

 been most widely propagated. 



This variety appears to have originated as one of a lot of seedlings 

 grown from seed planted about 1894 by the late Mr. S. C. Trapp in 

 his garden at Cocoanut Grove, Fla. The fruit from which the seed 

 was taken is supposed by Mrs. Trapp to have come from Key West. 

 The original tree is now about 10 to 20 feet in height and is in healthy 

 condition. Its late ripening habit and other desirable qualities having 



a Bui. 77, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, "The Avocado, a 

 Salad Fruit from the Tropics," 1905. 



^ Bui. 1, Division of Pomology, Department of Agriculture, p. 40. 



c Bul. 61, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, "The Avocado in 

 Florida," pp. 21-23, 1904. 



