10 



THE AVOCADO IN FLORIDA. 



late ones have brought as high as |3 a dozen when shipped in lots of 

 several crates at a time. This price gives the grower $6 to f 8 net per 

 crate at the shipping station. The price for good fruit in sound condi- 

 tion has never fallen so low as to make it unprofitable to ship it to 

 markets that use it. In man}^ large cities in the United States the 

 avocado can not be found at all, and as the dealers in Boston, New 

 York, Washington, and New Orleans have been able to handle all the 

 good fruit that has been sent to them, it is not probable that the 

 avocado will be introduced into other centers until these markets have 

 been full}^ supplied. 



THE NAME AVOCADO. 



This fruit has been called by various names — avocado, avocado pear, 

 avocate, aguacate, alligator pear, midshipman's butter, etc. As early 

 as 1696 Hans Sloane speaks of the "avocado or allegator pear-tree" 

 and catalogues about a dozen other names by which it is known in 

 literature. Previous to this date the avocado was known from "Nica- 

 raguae and other portions of the American continent." 



Murray's New English Dictionary prefers the name avocado and 

 gives the following reference: 



Taylor .■l??a/n?ac IX, 227 (1861). This is a well-known West Indian fruit which 

 we call an avocado or alligator pear, and which the Fren(;h call " avocat" and the 

 ' Spanish " aguacate." All these names are the corruption of the Aztec name of the 

 fruit "ahuacatl." 



Meissner ^ gives the following names as being used in various parts 

 of America: 



In Peru, Palto and Aguacate; in Central America, Aguacate de Anis;.in Mexico, 

 Aguacate; in Brazil, Avocate; in Antigua and British Guiana, Avocado Pear and 

 Alligator Pear; in French Guiana, Laurier Avocat. 



The Florida State Horticultural Societ}"^ prefers the name avocado, 

 while the American Pomological Society gives preference to "aguacate 

 and uses avocado as second choice. When the Catalogue of Fruits shall 

 be again revised, avocado will doubtless be given preference. 



According to the Century Dictionary, avocado is a corruption from 

 the Mexican. The addition of the word pear, while describing the 

 shape of the fruit in some varieties, is otherwise inappropriate, since 

 the avocado belongs to the laurel family, while the pear belongs to the 

 rose family. How such a barbarism as "alligator pear" could have 

 been perpetrated upon this salad fruit it is difficult to imagine. The 

 namci avocado is shoi't, concise, and has the advantage of being largel}' 

 used b}^ the American growers of this fruit. 



« Catalogus Phuitariim (juac in Insula Jamaica Si)onte l*roveniunt, Pars Prima, 

 London, KM), p. 185. 



/^ISIartius, Flora Brasilieusis, Vol. V, ])t. 2, fas(;.41, p. 159. 



^•Transactions, 1902, p. 20. 



'fVroc, Am. Pom. Soc, 190], Part JI, p. 59. 



