1051 
was on . the lookout for avocados. What I have been 
trying to ascertain is, How high can the avocados be 
grown in Guatemala? Previously I had never seen it 
above 7000 feet, which is about the extreme limit of 
the orange zone. But on this trip, I found avocados 
at Tecpan (7500 ft.) and most remarkable of all, at 
Totonicapan (8500 ft.) On looking carefully over the 
town, I found that most of the trees in the gardens 
were peaches, apples, the wild cherries which occur 
in this part of Guatemala, and a few other hardy 
things,- strictly temperate in character. The mata- 
sano (Casimiroa edulis) was seen here and there. I found 
three or four young avocado trees in protected sit- 
uations which had escaped the frost and looked pretty 
well and then found two large trees which had been 
frozen badly. They had the limbs killed back to the 
trunk, and scarcely a leaf on them. So far it did 
not look very promising. But finally I ran across a 
large tree growing in a patio (practically all of 
them were in patios) which had escaped practically 
uninjured, stood 40 feet high, and was carrying quite 
a little fruit. On examination the fruit proved to be 
of first-class quality. The idea of growing avocados 
1000 feet or more above the zone in which oranges can 
be grown strikes me as rather surprising. Aside from 
the avocados, there was scarcely anything of interest 
in Los Altos, as that region is called. The wild 
cherry was in bloom and I will see it again in fruit, 
probably, when I go back to Totonicapan. That is a 
remarkable region, sure enough; wheat and oats, 
principally wheat, with some apples and peaches in 
the towns, but practically all seedlings, of course. 
On the way back we spent a day at Mazatenango, and I 
went out to look up the amy. I found that the tree 
had bloomed recently and was full of young fruit; it 
was also carrying a lot of ripe fruit which I did 
not see when I was there before. It looks as though 
it must bloom twice a year, as I was told it bloomed 
in April and had not expected to find it in bloom as 
yet. I obtained 150 fruits and am taking the seeds 
down to Quirigua to plant. I plan to go down to Ama- 
titlan in a couple of days and cut some more budwood 
to put in this week's mall. When I said that one of 
the varieties from San Cristobal was the best avocado 
I had seen, I did it deliberately. It is really a 
magnificent fruit. If course I cannot forecast its 
behavior in the States, but as a fruit it Is cer- 
tainly splendid. As to the eoyo, I did not intend you 
