50 BULLETIN 743, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
crop from the 1916 bloom, the 1917 bloom set an equally heavy one, 
which was carried to maturity. The fruits can be picked in February, 
but are probably not at their best until the first of March. The 
season, therefore, is a month or more later than the average. If 
allowed to remain on the tree many of the fruits will hang on until 
April, or perhaps even later. 
The fruit is handsome, and its quality does not belie its looks. It 
is as large as a good grapefruit (20 to 2-1 ounces), with a slightly 
rough skin of yellowish green color, somewhat thicker than the 
average, so that the fruit is bruised with difficulty. The flesh is of 
deep -yellow color, firm and rather dry in texture, entirely free from 
discoloration of any sort, and of the richest possible flavor. No bet- 
ter avocado in point of flavor has been found in all Guatemala. 
The seed in large specimens of the variety is comparatively small, 
while in small specimens it is a trifle large, appearing to develop to 
more or less the same size in every case, independent of the size of 
the fruit. Under good cultural conditions in North America the 
fruits should be of large size, and if the seed remains small, as it 
does in the large specimens produced by the parent tree, this will 
almost surely be one of the choicest avocados of the series. It is 
scarcely necessary to add that the seed is tight in the cavity, for this 
is the case with all of the avocados included in this list. 
This variety may be formally described as follows: 
Form spherical to oblate; size large to very large, weight 17 to 24 ounces, 
length 3| to 4£ inches, greatest breadth 4 to 4J inches ; base rounded, the stem, 
which is about 5 inches long and moderately stout, inserted somewhat obliquely 
without depression; apex slightly flattened; surface uniformly pebbled, some- 
what coarsely so, deep green to yellow-green in color, with numerous large 
pale yellow-green dots ; skin moderately thick for this race, varying from one- 
sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch, hard and woody; flesh rich cream yellow 
to yellow in color, changing to pale green near the skin, free from fiber or dis- 
coloration, not watery, but very oily, smooth, and of rich, very pleasant flavor ; 
seed oblate, 2 to 3 ounces in weight, tight in the cavity, with both seed coats 
adhering closely to the cotyledons, which are slightly rough for this race. 
PANKAY. (No. 12.) S. P. I. No. 44785. 
The Pankay variety has been included in this list primarily for its 
probable hardiness. The parent tree is growing at an elevation of 
8,500 feet, which is more than a thousand feet above the zone in which 
citrus trees are seen in Guatemala. Avocados are rarely found at this 
elevation. Several other avocado trees in the same town (Totoni- 
capam) had been badly injured by a recent frost at the time Pankay 
was selected, but this variety had escaped practically untouched. 
How much may have been due to situation or other circumstances, 
however, is not known, and not too much confidence should be placed 
in the superior hardiness of this variety until it has been thoroughly 
