50 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE AVOCADO. 
often struck me while admiring the magnificent plants which annually crowd the tables of 
the metropolitan exhibitions, how much pots of this description would enhance the beauty 
of the plants exhibited. It must be admitted that the value of all objects is increased by 
comparison, as they approach a certain point, or degree of excellence. The plants them- 
selves are many of them matchless specimens of the gardener s skill. Nature and art 
cannot go much further in cultivation. The pots, on the contrary, are neither better, nor 
perhaps worse, than they were fifty years back, — try to embellish them, and make them 
worthy as works of art, to be viewed with satisfaction, in connexion with the choice 
treasures they contain. 
The reader must not suppose, that pots thus decorated, are recommended to be 
universally used, such would be a misapplication of taste ; but for plants to bloom in, for 
the conservatory, and for plants intended during the summer to ornament the flower- 
garden or parterre, such pots would harmonise with the surrounding objects and scenery, 
and by their w^armth and colour, form pleasing objects of themselves, independent of their 
proper uses. 
I am aware several other attempts have been made by parties to introduce this descrip- 
tion of pot to public notice ; but T have seen nothing executed so artistically as those 
described above. In conclusion, allow me to express a wish that this short notice may be 
the means of directing attention to the subject, and to the wide field it opens for British 
taste and skill. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE AVOCADO, OR ALLIGATOR PEAR, 
AS A TABLE FRUIT. 
The Avocado, or Alligator Pear, is the Laurus Persea of Linnaeus and the old botanical 
authors, and the Persea gratisshna of Gaertn., and our present catalogues of plants. It is 
a native of the West Indies, where it is extensively cultivated for its fruit, which both here 
and on the continent of America is highly prized, It is also found extensively in the New 
Continent ; and Mr. Purdie, in his travels through Columbia, met with a gigantic forest 
of these trees, about 2000 feet up the slope of the Nivada, where he describes the foliage 
as very luxuriant, and the delicious fruit so abundant, that the ground was literally 
strewed with it. 
In its wild state it usually forms a tree from forty to fifty feet high, with a trunk about 
two feet in diameter, but in a cultivated form it rarely exceeds thirty feet, with a spreading 
head, and a stem about the thickness of our common apple trees. 
Description. Plant a tree. Sar^ smooth, ash-coloured. Smnc/ies succulent, tender, 
scarcely able to support the large fleshy leaves. Leaves alternate, oblong, smooth, 
resembling those of the common laurel {Prunus Lauro-Cerasus). Flowers produced for 
the most part at the extremity of the branches, of a greenish yellow, and inconspicuous. 
Fr2iit the size of one of the largest pears. Pulp covered with a tough skinny coat, of a 
pretty firm consistence, with a delicate rich flavour, containing a large rugged seed, 
which is wrapped up in one or two thin membranous covers. 
The fruit is much eaten by all classes of society, both in the West Indies and America, 
being considered a necessary article at the breakfast-table ; and a friend of ours, who 
resided many years in America, informs us, that it gains upon the palate of most persons, 
even those who do not like it at first. 
The flavour is delicate and rich, but it is seldom eaten alone ; some persons use pepper 
and salt, some lemon or lime-juice, others sugar, and others wine, to give it pungency ; 
all agree that the fruit is calculated to improve the appetite, and is otherwise beneficial 
to the body. No tropical fruit is, perhaps, more universally relished than this ; it is 
