CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



41 



very granular, brittle, unusually thick, separating readily from flesh. 

 Seed oblate-spherical, 1.9 inches long by 2.1 inches diameter, smooth, 

 24.8 per cent of weight of entire fruit, somewhat loose in the rather large 

 cavity; seed coats adhering. Flesh deep golden-yellow, greenish near 

 skin, % to Yi inch thick, decidedly buttery and oily, very rich in flavor 

 and of excellent quality; fiber noticeable, somewhat stringy at base of 

 seed. Season, May. Tree prolific, often bearing 2 to 4 fruits on one 

 stalk. 



HOW SHALL WE ELIMINATE THE MISNOMER. 

 "ALLIGATOR PEAR"? 



By Thos. H. Shedden, Monrovia, Cal. 



Mr. President and 



The Lady and Gentlemen Friends of The Avocado: 



The good Dr. Webber has again prescribed me to be administered 

 to the infant avocado. I hope its growth may not be retarded thereby. 



The interrogatory character of my topic indicates that the alligators 

 are still crawling around among the avocados, although they do not seem 

 to be so numerous, or conspicuous. 



The formative period of anything is the proper time to prepare it 

 for its ultimate purpose. Fundamental, afterthought alterations are al- 

 ways expensive and difficult — oftimes impossible. Right now is the best 

 time to stamp indelibly upon this splendid food, which we are preparing 

 for our fellow creatures, that newly coined name, clean and fresh from 

 Uncle Sam's agricultural mint in Washington, ''AVOCADO,'' obliterat- 

 ing thereby that animal-vegetable conglomeration, "alligator pears," so 

 that in the next edition of Webster's, alligator pear will be followed by 

 that quiescent word, "obsolete." 



Some have feared that it may be too late in life to change the name 

 of this fruit. Not so. It wasn't bom alligator. It wasn't discovered 

 alligator. Long ere the old half of the world knew that the other half 

 existed, it lived, and bore the beautiful Aztec name, ahuacate, which, 

 alas, as a title, has seemed to be too mellifluously lingering and dulcet 

 for our practical American tongue to maintain — a fact proven in our 

 very midst — witness the blue pencil drawn through the original name of 

 our association. The California Ahuacate Association, a combination of 

 sweet sounds, for the retention of which, Mr. Hart ably contended, as 

 long as harmony would permit. The many modern cognomens (plural) 

 of the fruit have been shifty enough not to have the fruit's feelings hurt, or 

 flavor injured, by one more change, to mark, as it were, its new life in 

 the warm bosom of Mother Earth in Florida and California. 



Regarding the origin of the name alligator pear, which is merely 

 one of forty-three aliases under which this fruit has played hide and seek 

 for four centuries, I once read, that some cold climate sailors, while 

 sauntering around in a tropical port, obtained a lot of the fruits from the 

 natives. The Indian name, Ahuacate, is as often spelled with the "gua," 

 and the northern tongue is prone to pronounce the "g" hard. The word 

 looked and sounded to the sailors like alligator, (try it yourself), and 

 as the skin of the particular variety they had was thick and wartlike, it 



