DISTRIBUTION AND TIME OF BLOOMING. 



13 



sometimes called midshipman's Imtter, ami held in various de,i?rees of appreciation 

 by different persons. It is also nsed as a salad, being dressed with jx'pper, salt, and 

 vinegar, in uhich style it is relished l)y most people. The tree is (.f stately growth, 

 often reacliing the height of 40 or 50 feet in Florida, it is an American fruit; it was 

 introduced into the gai'dens of S])ain in KiOl, and into the Sunda Isles about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the eigliteentli century tliis 

 tree did not exist in tiie gardens of British India. In America its actual area in a 

 wild state is of nnconnnon extent. It has been found in the forests, on the banks of 

 rivers, and on the seashore from IMexico and the West Indies to the Amazon. At 

 the time of the discovery of America it was found both wild and cuUivated in Mexico. 

 According to Hernandez it was cultivated by the people of Peru under the name of 

 "palto," but there is no proof that it was wild in that country. 



Mr. W. Harris refers to it in Baile3^'s Cyclopedia of American Hor- 

 ticulture as follows: 



The avocado or alligator pear is a native of the West Indies, Mexico to Pern, and 

 Brazil. It is very connnon in Jamaica, being found in every settlement or planta- 

 tion. The tree grows to a height of 25 to 30 feet. It has ellii)tical or ellii»tical- 

 oblong leaves, 4 to 7 inches long, glabrate and pale beneath. The fruits are large, 

 more or less pear-shaped, and covered with a green or deei) purple skin and con- 

 taining a large quantity of a firm yellowish-green pulp, inclosing a single large seed. 

 This fruit is highly esteemed by all classes in the West Indies. The pulp is marrow- 

 like, and is eaten as a salad, usually Avith the addition of pepper, salt, and vinegai-. 

 Europeans as a rule do not like the fruit at first, but once the taste is acquired they 

 become exceedingly, often excessively, fond of it. The pulp contains an abundance 

 of oil, which may be used for illuminating purposes; also for soap making. The seeds 

 yield a deep, indelible black stain, and are used for marking linen. Plants are 

 easily raised from seeds, and in good soil in warm situations they grow rapidly and 

 begin to fruit when about 5 years old. There are a good many varieties, differing 

 from each other in size, shape, and quality of fruit. These differences are not due 

 to careful cultivation and selection in all cases, however, but to natural variation and 

 accidental intercrossing. 



DISTRIBUTION AND TIME OF BLOOMING. 



Meissner gives the habitat of the avocado as ''the forest, especially 

 on the seacoast and following the rivers of tropical America, as well 

 as in jNlexico, Peru, Colombia, Guiana, and the islands of the Antilles, 

 thence to subtropical localities where this agreeable fruit is cultivated. 

 It is found in Brazil, about Peru, and elsewhere; also about Yuri- 

 magnus, in Peru, and in English Guiana.'' 



Emile Rodigas^ thinks that the avocado is native to Brazil. He 

 figures a large green fruit without a seed cavit}^ It is interesting to 

 note that according to this author it was introduced in France in 1750. 



An herbarium specimen in the New York Botanical Garden, col- 

 lected by Mr. H. H. Smith, in Colombia, is accompanied by a note 

 stating that the species has exery appearance of being native to the 

 mountain forest at an altitude of from 1,500 to 2,500 feet. The time 



« Translation from ]Martius, Flora Brasiliensis, Vol. Y, Part II, p. 159. 

 & L' Illustrations Horticole, XXXVI: 15 (1889). 



