A GUATEMALAN AVOCADO RIPENING IN AUGUST. 
(Persea americana. See S. P. I, No. 45505.) 
The Akbal avocado is a variety from Amatitlan, Guatemala (altitude 3,900 feet), remarkable for 
its earliness in ripening. As will be observed, its form is rather objectionable, being longer 
and more slender than is considered ideal by American avocado growers, but its quality is 
excellent. In Guatemala it ripens in August and September, while most of the varieties in the 
same region do not commence to ripen before January or February. For this reason it is 
thought that the Akbal variety may be of value for California, where early-ripening varieties 
of the Guatemalan race are much desired. (Photographed by Wilson Popenoe, Guatemalan 
collection No. 32, at Amatitlan, Guatemala, November 8, 1917; P17411FS.) 
