quinces, strawberries (which are supplied in the restaurants 
throughout the entire year), oranges, bananas, cherimollas and 
which I purchased in the market of Oaxaca. Although small, 
knotty and ugly in appearance, it possesses a remarkable fra- 
grance and flavor and is sweet and rich beyond any other that 
I have ever eaten, unless possibly the very large and handsome 
fruits of the Guayaquil market. I should also like to comment 
upon the remarkable variety observed in the aguacates, or alli- 
gator pears, of Mexico. One of the extremes is a nearly spherical 
fruit not so large as a hen’s egg and having the rich purple color 
of the egg-plant, or darker. The other is a pear-shaped fruit, 
with very long neck and weighing two or three pounds. Betw 
these extremes we have all combinations of color, form and ae 
Those who purchase this fruit will find it economical to select 
the long-necked varieties, as the neck is composed of solid meat, 
the very large seed being confined to the larger en 
The Zapotes of Mexico are varied and of the greatest interest. 
Some of them belong in the genus Sapota, or the closely related 
enus Lucuma, while others are in widely separated families. 
“Zapote blanco,” or white zapote, is a delicious sweet fruit, resem- 
bling a roundish pear, of a green color, with a thin skin and white 
flesh and containing usually five large seeds. Strange to say, it is 
credited to the rue family. ‘‘Zapote negro,” or “Zapote prieto,” 
on the contrary, is a persimmon. Most of us are familiar with 
our own native persimmon, the pulp of which is of a deep-brown 
color, and with the Japanese species, or ‘‘kaki,’’ which much 
resembles a good sized tomato and has red or orange pulp. The 
black zapote here considered resembles the kaki in form but is 
two or even three times as large, of a deep green color externally, 
and the pulp of almost inky blackness. Like other persimmons, 
it is rather dry and wanting in flavor, though sweet. There is a 
record in the medical college of Mexico City of an unpopular 
professor having been changed in color from head to foot as a 
result of a fusilade with these fruits by his disgruntled disciples. 
