50 BULLETIN 743, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



crop from the 1916 bloom, the 1917 bloom set an equally heavy one, 

 which was carried to maturity. The fruits can be picked in February, 

 but are probably not at their best until the first of March. The 

 season, therefore, is a month or more later than the average. If 

 allowed to remain on the tree many of the fruits will hang on until 

 April, or perhaps even later. 



The fruit is handsome, and its quality does not belie its looks. It 

 is as large as a good grapefruit (20 to 24 ounces), with a slightly 

 rough skin of yellowish green color, somewhat thicker than the 

 average, so that the fruit is bruised with difficulty. The flesh is of 

 deep-bellow color, firm and rather dry in texture, entirely free from 

 discoloration of any sort, and of the richest possible flavor. No bet- 

 ter avocado in point of flavor has been found in all Guatemala. 

 The seed in large specimens of the variety is comparatively small, 

 while in small specimens it is a trifle large, appearing to develop to 

 more or less the same size in every case, independent of the size of 

 the fruit. Under good cultural conditions in North America the 

 fruits should be of large size, and if the seed remains small, as it 

 does in the large specimens produced by the parent tree, this will 

 almost surely be one of the choicest avocados of the series. It is 

 scarcely necessary to add that the seed is tight in the cavity, for this 

 is the case with all of the avocados included in this list. 

 This variety may be formally described as follows : 

 Form spherical to oblate; size large to very large, weight 17 to 24 ounces, 

 length 3| to 4 J inches, greatest breadth 4 to 41 inches ; base rounded, the stem, 

 which is about 5 inches long and moderately s^out, inserted somewhat obliquely 

 without depression ; apex slightly flattened ; surface uniformly pebbled, some- 

 what coarsely so, deep green «to yellow-green in color, with numerous large 

 pale yellow-green dots; skin moderately thick for this race, varying from one- 

 sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch, hard and woody; flesh rich cream yellow 

 to yellow in color, changing to pale green near the skin, free from fiber or dis- 

 coloration, not watery, but very oily, smooth, and of rich, very pleasant flavor ; 

 seed oblate, 2 to 3 ounces in weight, tight in the cavity, with both seed coats 

 adhering closely to the cotyledons, which are slightly rough for this race. 



PANKAY. (No. 12.) S. P. I. No. 44785. 



The Pankay variety has been included in this list primarily for its 

 probable hardiness. The parent tree is growing at an elevation of 

 8,500 feet, which is more than a thousand feet above the zone in which 

 citrus trees are seen in Guatemala. Avocados are rarely found at this 

 elevation. Several other avocado trees in the same town (Totoni- 

 capam) had been badly injured by a recent frost at the time Pankay 

 was selected, but this variety had escaped practically untouched. 

 How much may have been due to situation or other circumstances, 

 however, is not known, and not too much confidence should be placed 

 in the superior hardiness of this variety until it has been thoroughly 



