Sketch of the Tropical Fruits likely to be worth 



The Avocado, or Alligator Pear (Laurus Persea), is borne 

 by a tree the size of an Apple tree. The leaves are oblong, 

 and veiny, and the flowers of a yellowish green colour. The 

 fruit is the size of a large Pear, and is considered one of the 

 most delicious in the world. In the inside it is yellow, con- 

 taining a kernel enclosed in a soft rind like the Chestnut. 

 The pulp is pretty firm, and has a delicate rich flavour not 

 unlike a Peach, but infinitely more grateful, although not so 

 sweet. Sometimes it is called Vegetable Marrow, and is 

 frequently eaten with pepper and salt ; but the most usual 

 mode is to mix the pulp with a little sugar and lime juice, on 

 account of its richness * There are three kinds, the red, the 

 purple, and the green, of these the last is the best.f It is 

 figured in Sloane' s Natural History of Jamaica, plate 222. 



The Sappodilla Plum (Achras Sapota), is the fruit of a 

 large tree ; and is by many considered only inferior to the 

 Orange. The white, bell-shaped flowers are produced from 

 among the tufted, shining, lanceolate leaves which clothe the 

 ends of its shoots. In shape and size the fruit resembles a 

 Bergamot Pear, in colour it is like the Medlar, and like it is 

 eaten when it is beginning to decay. Although austere and 

 milky before, it then becomes so sugared that many Euro- 

 peans consider it too sweet. The fruit ought to be gathered 

 a few days before it is ripe. J It is an old inhabitant of our 

 stoves; and is excellently represented in T us sac's Flore des 

 Antilles, plate 5. 



* Browne's Jamaica, page 214. Sloane, Vol ii. page 131. Stedman, Vol. i. 

 page 312. f Hughes, page 130. 



X Tussac Antilles, page 75. Hughes, page 33. Browne, page 200, plate 19, 

 fig. 3. Sloane, Vol. ii. page 1 7 i . || Hughes, page 1 77. 



