The breadfruit (_Artocarpus incisa_) grows remarkably well in Livingston and Belize, although I think the fruit is smaller than in the Pacific islands. Carefully baked when full grown, but not ripe, it is a fine vegetable, and the baked fruit sliced and fried is a delicacy. The odor of the uncooked fruit is very unpleasant. Squashes, cucumbers (including a small spiny wild one which is very good), melons, grow well, and pumpkins are planted among the corn, as in New England. Indeed, the variety of squashes is very great, and one may see a dozen or fifteen kinds in a single heap. They are fed to cattle as pumpkins are with us. Some are so hard that they keep a long time. The _chiote_ (_Sechium edule_) is a rapid growing runner, often covering the houses, and bearing a fruit about the shape of a pear and three inches thick, covered with soft prickles. This was abundant all through the villages, and in the plazas it was sold parboiled, fried, or preserved in sugar. It tastes much like a vegetable marrow. Tomatoes grow everywhere, and are of great importance in the kitchen, next to the universal chile (_Capsicum annuum_). Peppers of other kinds are used, especially a large green one which is stuffed with minced meat coated with egg and crumbs and served as _Chile relleno_. Pawpaws (_Carica papaya_) are common (a small wild species is abundant on the Pacific coast); and the fruit, as large as a cantaloupe, and filled with pungent seeds like those of the tropæolum, is eaten raw, or cooked in tarts. Its juice is of the greatest use in making tough meat tender. The akee (_Blighia sapida_) is much like a custard when cooked. The avocado (_Persea gratissima_) is one of the fruits that have many names. In Peru it is called _palta_, and the Mexican _ahuacatl_ was twisted by the Spaniards into _aguacate_ and _avocado_, and the English corrupted this last into alligator-pear. Intermediate, like the carica, between vegetable and fruit, few strangers like the aguacate at first. There are many varieties; but the best is pear-shaped, weighing about a pound, with a shiny purple, leathery skin. Between the skin and the rather large kernel is a greenish pulp nearly an inch thick, which is the edible part of this delicious fruit. It is of a buttery consistency, and may serve as substitute for butter, and be eaten alone, or with salt and pepper. The sapote (_Lucuma mammosa_) somewhat resembles the aguacate in the size and position of the edible pulp; but the outside is rough and brown, and the salmon-colored interior is insipid and inferior.