70 



LAUEACEAE. 



PERSEA. 

 (Family Lauraceae). 



Shrubs or small or moderate- 

 sized trees with aromatic bark: 

 evergreen. ,Twigs moderate, 3s 

 angled and minutely fluted: pith 

 roundish, continuous, pale. Buds 

 solitary or superposed, subsessile 

 and ovoid or frequently develop- 

 ing the first year or replaced by 

 peduncle-scars, the end-bud larger, 

 with 3 or 4 exposed scales. Leaf- 

 scars alternate, somewhat ele- 

 vated, the lower of each season 

 nearly linear and the upper round 

 or elliptical: bundle-trace 1, trans- 

 verse, compound: stipule-scars 

 lacking. Leaves lanceolate, en- 

 tire. 



Of recent years the alligator 

 pear, or aguacate as it is called 

 in Mexico and Central America, 

 has become a standard fruit tree 



of Florida and southern California. In our eastern markets, 

 where the fruits have been sold from the West Indies for 

 many years, they are familiar as large and pear-shaped, with 

 smooth thin green skin. As offered at railroad stations in 

 Mexico, they are much smaller and rather purple. In Guate- 

 mala they are very large, round and with thick skin. 



1. Leaves golden-satiny beneath: small shrub. P. humilis. 

 Leaves glabrate or loosely hairy: larger. 2. 



2. Leaves honeycomb-pitted beneath. P. littoralis. 

 Leaves not pitted. 3. 



3. Leaves whitened beneath, not veiny. (1). P. borbonica. 

 Leaves green, veiny. (Alligator pear). (2). P. gratissima. 



