Avoca'do Pear

Avoca'do Pear, or ALLIGATOR PEAR (Persea gratissima), a fruit-tree of the natural order Lauraceæ (q.v.), is a native of tropical America and the West Indies. The fruit is a drupe, but in size and shape resembles a huge pear; is usually of a brown colour, and has a soft or deep green pulp, not very sweet, but of a delicate flavour, which dissolves like butter on the tongue, and contains a large quantity of a fixed oil which is sometimes expressed for soapmaking and illuminating purposes. It is called vegetable butter in some of the French colonies. It is much esteemed in the West Indies, and often eaten with pepper and salt, or with sugar and lime-juice or spices. The seeds give a black stain, used for marking linen.