Edible Products. 



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Var. oblonga. Leaves long, equally attenuate at both ends, often acute, 

 1 to 9 inches long, 14; to 2 inches wide, short pediceled. West Indies, Mexico, 

 Peru, Brazil, Mascarene Islands, Java. 



Var. marcophylla. Leaves larger, 6 to 9 inches long, 3 to 4£ inches broad, 

 obovate or obovate-oblong, acutely acuminate, short pediceled. Eastern Peru, 

 British Guiana, Central America, Mexico. 



Var. schiedeanci, Leaves ample, 9 inches and more in length, 3 to 4^ 

 inches broad, obovate and oblong, acute or obtuse, young leaves with a thick yellow 

 tomentum, veins and veinules rather accentuated underneath, pa,nicles terminal, 

 bases with long persistent imbricate bracts, pedicels rather long. Misantla, Mexico. 

 Mez recognizes two varieties as differing from the normal type, one of which is the 

 schiedeana described above, and which is apparently confined to Mexico ; the other, 

 drimyfolia, also confined to Mexico, was formerly considered a distinct species. A 

 translation of his description of the latter variety is as follows : — 



Variety drimyfolia. Differs from the normal form in being smoother; 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate, narrowly acute at base, apex acute or somewhat acute, 

 below glaucous. 



A delicious fruit tree, cultivated in tropical regions, and from thence 

 imported into Europe. In Portugal and Sicily it winters if protected, and sometimes 

 produces mature fruit. Embryo (according to Schomburg) often with three 

 cotyledons, and frequently germinating on the tree. According to Krug, the fruits 

 of this tree come true to seed, and it is not necessary to graft. This description 

 applies best to the hard-skinned type of Guatemala, the peculiarities of the fruit of 

 which seem never to have found their Avay into literature, and it is probable that 

 the similarity is confined merely to the dimensions of the leaves. The marked 

 differences in the fruits of the avocados from different localities are recognizable in 

 the earliest descriptions. Hernandez's description of a black fruit, the size and 

 shape of an egg or fig corresponds well with many of the small black forms grown 

 in Mexico at the present time, and, so far as known, not occurring elsewhere. On 

 the other hand, all the early writers on the West Indies describe a much larger 

 fruit with much thicker flesh. 



The distinction between the thick-skinned and thin-skinned forms of the 

 avocados was made as early as 1590 by Acosta, who wrote :— The Palta is a 

 great tree, and carries a faire leaf e, which hath a fruit like to great peares : within 

 it hath a great stone, and all the rest is soft meate, so as when they are full ripe, 

 they are, as it were, butter, and have a delicate taste. In Peru the Paltas are 

 great, and have a very hard skale, which may be taken off whole. The fruit is 

 most usual in Mexico, having a thinne skinne, which may be peeled like an apple; 

 they hold it for a holesome meate, and, as I have said, it declines a little from heat. 



It is worthy of note that the earliest account of the avocado in the West 

 Indies, by Hughes, describes a hard-skinned type, yet so far as known this type 

 does not exist in the West Indies at the present time. The description referred 

 to follows:— This is a reasonable high and well-spread Tree, whose leaves are smooth 

 and of a pale green colour : the Fruit is of the fashion of a Fig, but very smooth 

 on the outside, and as big in bulk as a Slipper-Pear ; of a brown colour, having 

 a stone in the middle as big as an Apricot, but round, hard and smooth ; the outer 

 paring or rinde is, as it were, a kinde of a shell, almost like an Acorn-shell, but 

 not altogether so tough ; yet the middle substance (I mean between the stone 

 and the paring, or outer crusty rine) is very soft and tender, almost as soft 

 as the pulp of a Pippin not over-roasted. It groweth in divers places in Jamaica; 

 and the truth is, I never saw it elsewhere ; but it is possible it may be in 

 other Islands adjacent, which are not much different in Latitude. I never 



