Edible Products. 



which is something of a liquid or paste that is very similar to butter and a very 

 good food and of good flavour, and such that those that can have them guard and 

 appreciate them ; and they are wild trees in the manner of all those that have 

 been spoken of, for the chief gardener is God, and the Indians apply no work 

 whatever to these trees. With cheese these pears taste very well, and they are 

 gathered early, before they are ripe, and stored ; and after they are collected they 

 mature and become in perfect condition to be eaten ; but after they are ready to 

 be eaten they spoil if they are left and allowed to pass that time. 



COMMON NAMES. 



The various common names of the avocado form a curious and undignified 

 jumble. None seems to be available that is not either misleading in its application 

 or difficult to pronounce. The most common designation among English-speaking 

 people is " alligator pear," and, although it is very difficult and for many reasons 

 undesirable to change a popular name, it seems best while this fruit is still little 

 known to endeavour to secure a less misleading designation. The name " avocado " 

 is almost as widely used as " alligator pear," and while not altogether unobjection- 

 able, its adoption will avoid the confusion of this salad fruit with varieties of the 

 common pear. The use of the name "alligator pear" not only retards the true 

 appreciation of this very distinct article of diet, but will eventually cause annoying 

 complications in statistical classifications of the products of regions where both this 

 and true pears are grown. The word "pear" is sometimes appended to "avocado," 

 and the name is then no less objectionable than the other form. "Palta" is applied 

 to the avocado in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, and is said by Garcilasso de la Vega 

 to have been applied by the Incas, who brought this fruit from the province of that 

 name to the warm valley of Cuzco, although it seems not improbable that the 

 province may have received its name from the tree, according to the common custom 

 of primitive people. 



The name " ahuacaquahuitl," given by Hernandez, signifies " like the oak 

 tree," and is variously spelled by other writers. The words "aguacate ' and 

 " avocado " are probably Spanish spellings of attempts to pronounce the Aztec name. 

 To an Andalusian the sound of the word would naturally suggest the spelling 

 " aguacate," while a Castilian would be more likely to adopt the other form. The 

 French name "avocat" is probably a modification of the Spanish, or perhaps an 

 independent approximation of the native name. The tendency to transform a new 

 name into a word already existing in the language is shown in the spelling " abogado " 

 in the Spanish and "avocat" in the French, both words meaning lawyer. Tussac 

 gives " aoucate " as the Carib name and derives the French " avocat " from that form. 

 Jumelle and Pickering also give modifications of this word as Carib. It seems 

 impossible that the Carib and Aztec names should be so similar, and it is more 

 likely that the Carib's attempt to pronounce the Spansh designation was erroneously 

 recorded as a native name. 



The form of the fruit obviously suggests the term "pear," and "perales," 

 or pear trees, was the name under which they were first recorded by Oviedo in 1526, 

 that author, however, stating that they were pears in form and in nothing else. 

 The name "alligator" is entirely without warrant, and no one has as yet suggested 

 even a fanciful application to any of the characteristics of the fruit or tree. It has 

 been suggested that the term is a further corruption of the Spanish " aguacate," 

 and this must be admitted as possible. The occurrence of the word "alligator" 

 prefixed to the names of plants, such as "alligator pepper" for Amomum melegueta, 

 Rose, suggests that the word may formerly have been used to signify false or worth- 

 less, and if this were true its application to this pear-shaped fruit would be very 

 natural. The application of other English names, such as " subaltern's butter," 

 " midshipman's butter," "vegetable marrow," etc., is obvious. 



