APRIL, 1 TO JUNE 30, 1917. 25 



44562. GossTPiuM sp. Malvaceae. Cotton. 



From Kribi, Kamerun, West Africa. Presented by Rev. H. W. Grieg, 

 Presbyterian Church Mission. Received April 12, 1917. 

 Seeds sent in response to a request for a native cotton reported to be used by 

 the Bulus in weaving cloth. 



44563. Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile. Zygophyllacese. 



From Cairo, Egypt. Presented hy Mr. F. G. Walsingham, Gizeh Branch, 

 Ministry of Agriculture. Received April 14, 1917. 

 A tropical African tree, 3 to 5 meters high, with straight, rigid branches; 

 woolly, papery, ovate leaves ; green flowers in 3 to 5 flowered cymes ; and edible 

 drupes 3 cm. long, with a bitter-sweet flavor. The natives make an intoxicating 

 drink from these fruits, which are also eaten raw with a laxative eftect. The 

 seeds yield an oil known as oil of betu, which is used as a liniment, for food, 

 and, to some extent, as a medicine. The wood is hard and close gi'ained, and 

 the bark of the young trees yields a very strong flber. One of the ingredients of 

 the celebrated spikenard perfume is supposed to have been furnished by this 

 tree. (Adapted from Post, Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Sinai, p. 199, and 

 from Keiv Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Additional Series IX, p. 138.) 



44564. Zea mays L. Poacese. Corn. 



From Rosario, Argentina. Presented by Mr. William Dawson, jr., American 

 consul. Received April 16, 1917. 



"A Rosario landowner who has made extensive experiments with corn re- 

 cently reported to the Rosario Bolsa de Comercio with respect to the advisa- 

 bility of sowing bitter corn (maiz amargo) which is indorsed in some quarters 

 as locust proof. His recommendations are strongly against this variety. While 

 the locust, unless hard pressed, will not eat the leaves if it finds the plant in 

 flower or grain, it will eat bitter corn as well as any other form. The growth 

 of bitter corn is very slow and requires 9 to 10 months, and even more. With 

 its enormous leaves it exhausts the soil, and after the harvest the hard green 

 stalks make it very diflicult to clear the ground, especially in Argentina, where 

 farm labor is costly. Finally, its yield is very small and from 25 to 50 per cent 

 of that which any other common variety of corn will give under similar condi- 

 tions, to say nothing of the yields obtained from selected seed. 



" The landowner mentioned, who makes a specialty of selected seed, states 

 that bitter corn is the only variety that he does not sell. He considers it useful 

 only in the Chaco where ' land is as plentiful as locusts,' and there is little objec- 

 tion to exhausting the soil. Furthermore, in the Chaco the distance between 

 farms is too great to permit an organized defensive campaign against locusts, 

 which under ordinary circumstances respect the leaves of bitter corn." (Datv- 

 son, in Commerce Reports, January J/, 1917, p. 36.) 



44565. Myeistica feagrans Houtt. Myristicacefe. Nutmeg. 

 From Grenada, British West Indies. Presented by Mr. L. F. de Backer, 



New York City. Received April 16, 1917. 

 An East Indian tree, 20 to 25 feet high, with smooth grayish brown bark; 

 oval, dark-green, sharp-pointed leaves 3 to 6 inches long, slightly aromatic 

 when bruised ; pale yellowish dioecious flowers in axillary racemes ; and nearly 

 spherical, pearlike drupes. The flesh of these drupes is yellowish and full of 

 astringent juice, and discloses the oval, hard-shelled, rugged, dark-brown nut. 

 This contains the nutmeg of commerce, an oval, pale-brown seed which soon 

 becomes shriveled and wrinkled. (Adapted from Cnrtis's Botanical Magazine, 

 pis. 2756 and 2757, as Myristica offlcinalis.) 



