14 JANUARY 2006, Page 20

Alligator hunt

From Pamela de Putron

Sir: Dot Wordsworth will be pleased to know that the term ‘alligator pear’, the English substitution for the Aztec word ‘ahuacatl’ and Spanish ‘avocado’ (Mind your language, 31 December), is alive and well in Sri Lanka, where as recently as 2004 I was met initially with blank stares when looking for avocado in a Colombo market.

Pamela de Putron

Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies