THE AVOCADO 17 



Hughes, in his important work "The American Physician" 

 published in 1672, devotes a short chapter to "The Spanish 

 Pear." His reference to its having been planted in Jamaica 

 by the Spaniards is in agreement with other accounts, all of 

 which indicate that the avocado was not cultivated in the West 

 Indies previous to the Discovery. 



Sir Hans Sloane, in his catalog of the plants of Jamaica, 

 ~ published in 1696, briefly describes the avocado, cites numerous 

 works in which it is mentioned, and gives as its common name 

 "The avocado or alligator pear-tree." This is the first time 

 that either of these names appears in print, so far as has been 

 discovered. 



It is useless to enter into a discussion of all the common 

 names which have appeared in the literature of this fruit. 

 G. N. Collins 1 lists forty-three, but many of them are of 

 limited use, and others are the clumsy efforts of early writers 

 to spell the names they had heard. 



The correct name of this fruit in English is at present recog- 

 nized to be avocado. This is undoubtedly a corruption of the 

 Spanish ahuacate or aguacate, which in turn is an adaptation of 

 the Aztec ahuacatl. The Spaniards, who probably introduced 

 - the avocado into Jamaica, brought with it the Mexican name. 

 When Jamaica was taken by the British this name began to 

 undergo a process of corruption, during which such forms as 

 albecata, avigato, and avocato were developed. Frequently 

 the term "pear" was added to these, in conformity with the 

 tendency of the early English colonists to apply familiar names 

 to the fruits which they found in America. We have many 

 other evidences of this tendency, e.g., star-apple, custard- 

 apple, hog-plum, Spanish-plum. 



The name avocado or avocado-pear was one of the numerous 

 corruptions which found its way into print, first appearing, 

 so far as known, in 1696 (see above). For some reason it has 



1 Bull. 77, Bureau of Plant Industry. 

 c 



