CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



43 



southern Mexico, and that by a brief search we might obtain other and more valu- 

 able varieties of the same race. A visit to Athxco has served to clear av/ay these 

 doubts, and make me realize that in Fuerte we have secured a unique avocado. 



Imagine that you have gone to Atlixco in my place. You found good avo- 

 cados, — many of them excellent avocados, — all about you. Guatemalan varieties 

 of large size and good quality, and Mexican varieties better than those of almost 

 any other region. You looked over these fruits and were delighted with them. 

 Then you came upon a single tree of rather distinct character, and found that its 

 fruit was reputed to be as good as the best Guatemalan, while it had a ripening 

 season which exactly met your requirements, — a thing which most Guatemalans 

 do not possess. Would it not attract your attention? And as you examined it 

 more carefully, and found that the fruit was not only of excellent quality, but 

 that it had a tough skin and a very small seed; that the tree bore regularly and 

 abundantly ; that the ripening season was unusually long ; and that it was a vigor- 

 ous grower and hardier than any known variety of the Guatemalan race; would 

 you not become enthusiastic about its possibilities? 



THE PUEBLA AVOCADO 

 Since it has been included in the list of eight varieties recommended for 

 planting by the California Avocado Association, Puebla is worthy of more than 

 passing notice. 



In the circular issued by the Association (Circular No. 1 ) the statement is 

 made: "Puebla is not strictly a Guatemalan type, but is supposed to be a hybrid." 

 A careful examination of the parent tree, growing in the huerta of Vicente Pineda, 

 in Atlixco, and of its fruit, has satisfied me that Puebla is a representative of the 

 Mexican race, and not, like Fuerte, a hybrid between the Mexican and the Guate- 

 malan. I was unable to find a single character which indicated hybridity, while 

 in Fuerte there are several. Puebla is later in season than most other varieties of 

 its race, but this is the only way in which it seems to differ from them. The 

 character of its fruit is purely Mexican, so far as I could see, and the tree is a 

 typical Mexican, both in appearance and in the anise-like odor of its leaves. 



It was impossible to obtain a satisfactory photograph of the parent tree, 

 owing to its situation. It is crowded between several other avocados, with pome- 

 granate bushes close beside it. It is not large, perhaps 25 feet high, and is 

 slender in habit, with a trunk about 10 inches thick. It does not seem to be in 

 vigorous condition. When I saw it, on December 1 9, there were only two fruits 

 left on it. I was informed by the caretaker that the bulk of the crop had been 

 picked in September. The season of this variety in Atlixco can be considered 

 September to December. 



The fruits which I obtained were small and probably not typical of the 

 variety. They were obovoid in form, rather broad at the base, with the perianth- 

 segments persisting around the stem, — one of the characteristics of the Mexican 

 race. The surface was smooth, slightly glossy, dull maroon purple to purplish 

 black in color, with minute reddish dots. The skin was 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters 

 thick, leathery, rather firm, peeling readily from the flesh but not granular in tex- 

 ture. The flesh was cream-yellow near the seed, changing to pale green toward 

 the skin, buttery and fine-grained, with the fiber markings not very conspicuous. 

 The flavor was rich, nutty, and very pleasant. The seed was proportionately 

 large, tight in the cavity with both seed coats closely surrounding the cotyledons. 



Puebla can be considered an unusually good fruit of the Mexican race, par- 

 ticularly valuable because of its lateness in ripening. 



