The aguacate, called palta in Peru and "perales" in Tierra Firme

A royal chronicler files the avocado among the wild trees the Christians called "pear trees" — then reports the same trees planted by hand in Nicaraguan town squares and cultivated by the Indians, and concludes that everything was wild before human industry took it in hand. A Jesuit in Peru describes it under its Andean name, tells the hard-skinned Peruvian fruit from the thin-skinned Mexican one, and would still rather eat a European pear. Archaeobotany has dated the industry Oviedo guessed at.