GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA. 



belongm 

 the lip.) 



Maxillaria con cava. Lindley. A pale yellow-flowered Epiphyte, from Guatemala, 

 g to Orchids. Blossoms in November. (Fig. 150, diminished, with a magnified view of 



One of the less interesting of the racemose Maxillarias. 



The flowers are pale yellow ; the lip is almost truncate, 

 concave, bluntly 3-toothed, with the middle 

 lobe somewhat fleshy, and tuberculated at 

 the edge ; marked with rose-coloured 

 veins, with a long narrow ridge in the 

 middle, 3-lobed at the point. It is nearest 

 M. bracteata, but its flowers are smaller, 

 the bracts very small and bristly, and the 

 lip of quite another form. 



PERSEA GRATISSIMA. 



Gartner. (alias Lauras Persea 

 Linnceus.) A tree from the West 

 Indies, where it produces the fruit 

 called the Alligator Pear. Plowers 

 green, downy, in panicles. Belongs 

 to the order of Laurels. 



" The ' Avocado,' or 1 Alligator Pear,' 

 yields a fruit never, that I am aware, 

 known to be produced in Europe; nor am 

 I aware that it has ever flowered in our 

 stoves, save at Syon and Kew. In the 

 West Indies it is highly valued,- and cul- 

 tivated, and in tropical America generally. 

 It is presumed to be an aboriginal of 

 these countries ; though some say im- 

 ported to the islands from the South 

 American continent. Why called A lligator 

 Pear is not very evident, Perhaps the 

 first word is a corruption of Aguacate, one 

 of the names by which, according to 

 Ulloa, it is known in Lima. Tlie fruit 

 is pear-shaped, yellow or brownish-green, 

 often tinged with deep purple. Between the skin and the hard seed is a pale butyraceous substance, interspersed with 

 greenish veins, and this is much eaten by all classes of people; its taste somewhat resembling butter or marrow, and 

 hence is called the « vegetable marrow: ' and this is so rich and mild that most people make use of some spice or pungent 



