INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM OCTOBER 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1914 (NO. 41; NOS. 39309 TO 39681).

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.

Although a small one, this inventory contains descriptions of some very interesting new material.

A low-growing creeping legume (Dolichos hosei, the Sarawak bean), which keeps down the weeds successfully in rubber plantations in the Malay States and should be of value in citrus orchards. in Florida (S. P. I. No. 39335), and a wild prostrate form of alfalfa from the mountains between Hotien, Honan, and Luanfu, Shansi, China, will interest those experimenting with forage and cover crops (S. P. I. No. 39426).

The Rosa odorata gigantea (S. P. I. No. 39593), a giant among the roses from the Himalayas, with white flowers 6 inches across and a more rampant growth than the Cherokee rose and which has already shown that it will cross on other roses, ought to open the for a new race of climbing roses in the South.

way

Eight varieties of sweet potato from the Cuba Experiment Station (S. P. I. Nos. 39610 to 39617), among them a prize winner of the Camaguey exhibition, will be wanted for trial by southern stations, and the wild tomato of Funchal (S. P. I. No. 39362), introduced by Mr. Gable from the driest rocky locations on the island of Madeira, where it grows wild and is believed to be from the original stock from which the cultivated tomato has sprung, will probably interest tomato breeders because of its drought-resistant qualities. An unusually large collection of Chinese barleys, 38 varieties (S. P. I. Nos. 39494 to 39531), presented by the special envoy for foreign affairs, through the United States consul general at Shanghai, may yield good new varieties for some sections of this country.

NOTE. This bulletin is a record of new or little-known seeds or plants procured mostly from abroad. It is intended for distribution to agricultural experiment stations and the more important private cooperators.

The chingma, the so-called China jute or Tientsin fiber (S. P. I. No. 39361), which yields a harsher and stronger fiber than the Indian jute and is used for carpet making, has been introduced from Ichang, China, and, if improved methods for extracting the fiber can be devised, may prove a profitable crop in America.

The attempt to save from extinction the last survivor of a species of tree closely related to our cultivated cotton, in order that hybrids with it may be made, has a great deal more than a sentimental interest. Seeds from the dying tree of this Kokia drynarioides (S. P. I. No. 39354) from Molokai, have been secured by Mr. Rock, of Hawaii. The doorn boom of the South Africa veldt (Acacia horrida), the most widely distributed of all South African trees and the characteristic landscape tree in the pictures of big-game hunting in South Africa, appears to be a promising hedge plant and windbreak for trial in Texas (S. P. I. No. 39355).

The most beautiful of the flowering trees of Java (Spathodea campanulata), introduced from Africa info that island, which is in bloom there almost throughout the whole year, was sent in by Dr. B. T. Galloway several years ago and has flowered in southern Florida, and new importations of seed have consequently been made (S. P. I. No. 39415). To Mr. W. M. Matheson will go the honor of the first introduction of this tree into Florida, for he brought it in earlier from Jamaica.

The success of various species of Tamarix as low windbreaks in Texas has made it advisable to get together the other species of this genus, and two of these have been imported from the desert of Farab, Bokhara, Turkestan (S. P. I. Nos. 39628 and 39629).

The accounts of the Mahwa tree (Madhuca indica, S. P. I. No. 39325), the fleshy flowers of which produce food annually in India worth over a million dollars, have made it seem desirable to introduce it into Florida and Porto Rico, even though these dried flowers have an unpleasant odor of mice and appear to be somewhat indigestible. The value of this tree seems truly remarkable, and it deserves investigation from an American point of view.

The rapid growth of avocado groves in California and Florida and the growing realization that a fruit which produces over 29 percent of fat is more than a mere table delicacy make the dissemination of the Guatemalan and Mexican hard-shelled spring and winter ripening seedlings of remarkable shipping qualities, which have in recent years been grown in California, of much more than passing interest (S. P. I. Nos. 39369 to 39375).

American Consul Charles K. Moser's discovery of a delicious Ceylonese mango almost as large as a coconut, with a striking red blush and almost no fiber, shows that all of the most desirable types

of the mango varieties of India evidently can not be secured through correspondence (S. P. I. No. 39485).

The popularity of the Paraguayan fruit Feijoa sellowiana and its unexpected hardiness in the South make a large-fruited seedling of especial importance at this time (S. P. I. No. 39555).

The rosy fleshed anona called Ilama (Annona diversifolia), considered one of the best of this important class of fruits (S. P. I. No. 39567), and the Annona purpurea (S. P. I. No. 39358), a new, large, aromatic-fruited species, add two important fruit plants to the subtropical collection.

The Chinese wampi (Claucena lansium) has shown that it will grown in Florida, and either its pale yellow rough-skinned, fruits of aromatic flavor or its ability as a stock to carry the grapefruit may make it of value (S. P. I. No. 39568).

The tropical ciruelas Spondias lutea (S. P. I. No. 39563), which are popular in the markets of Bogota three months of the year, should, if one can judge by the success of other species of the same genus there, thrive well in Florida.

A study seems not yet to have been made of the varieties of coconut and their comparative value for the different purposes to which coconuts are put, and the introduction by Mr. H. Pittier, from Punta Burica, Panama, of a rare variety rich in oil (S. P. I. No. 39356) emphasizes the need of a thorough study of this immensely valuable food plant.

The possible use of new stocks for the pear and an investigation of the origin of the blight-proof Kieffer and LeConte pears will make necessary close comparisons of the different Chinese species, and pear breeders will want plants coming from the original trees of Pyrus betulaefolia which were sent to Kew and the Arnold Arboretum by Dr. Bretschneider in 1882 (S. P. I. Nos. 39547 and 39548); also plants of Pyrus bretschneideri (S. P. I. No. 39538), which, at the arboretum, in addition to being a remarkable ornamental, yields yellow globose, juicy fruits of fair quality, from which it is thought by Prof. Sargent the best of the Chinese cultivated pears have been derived; and Pyrus ovoidea (S. P. I. No. 39541), which is possibly the parent of the Kieffer and has large, abundant flowers and foliage that colors scarlet in autumn; and particularly Pyrus phaeocarpa (S. P. I. No. 39540), with pyriform fruits, which has never been attacked by pear blight, although a large tree of it has been standing in the arboretum for many years, exposed to infection.

The woolly aphis is a serious pest of apple orchards in Chile, but four immune varieties of apple have been found there and extensively propagated by a large nursery firm at Santiago. They are deserving of trial in this country (S. P. I. Nos. 39320 to 39323).

Mr. Frank N. Meyer, Agricultural Explorer of the Department of Agriculture, has discovered in the Shansi Province of China a true wild apricot, the kernels of which are pickled in brine and eaten as appetizers by the natives (S. P. I. No. 39439), and in the mountains south of Sianfu, Shensi Province (S. P. I. No. 39428), and again in Chaoyu, Shansi Province (S. P. I. No. 39544), a small, sour, but freestone wild peach, which may be of decided importance to peach breeders. Prinsepia uniflora, which he found near Fucheng, a spiny shrub, very decorative in May, and bearing fruits which resemble cherries, being dark red in color, quite juicy, and sour, may add a useful hardy fruiting shrub to the gardens of this country (S. P. I. No. 39432). A Prinsepia introduced by Wilson has proved hardy in the Arnold Arboretum.

Chinese place and plant names in this inventory have been brought, as far as possible, into accord with the best authorities, the geographic names (except when fixed by decisions of the United States Geographic Board) being given in the form accepted by the Chinese Ministry of Communications Postal Guide. Many of the smaller village names, however, are not listed therein, and in all such cases the location of the village is given with reference to the nearest town mentioned in that work.

The manuscript of this inventory has been prepared by Miss May Riley, the botanical determinations of seeds introduced have been made and the notes on geographic distribution compiled by Mr. H. C. Skeels, and the descriptive notes arranged by Mr. S. C. Stuntz, who has also had general supervision of this inventory.

DAVID FAIRCHILD,

Agricultural Explorer in Charge.

OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION,

Washington, D. C., November 25, 1916.