68 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



45608 and 45609. 



From Cienfuegos, Cuba. Seeds presented by Mr. R. M. Gray, Harvard Ex- 

 periment Station. Received December 18, 1917. 



45608. Camoensia maxima Welw. Fabaceae. 



This vine, which adorns the tops of lofty trees in tropical Africa, 

 bears probably the largest and most beautiful flowers of any plant in 

 the world. These deliciously fragrant flowers, sometimes 8 inches in 

 length, have petals of pure white margined with gold which becomes^ 

 darker with age; they are borne in pendulous clusters of nearly a dozen 

 individuals. The 3 to 4 seedetl pod is 6 to 8 inches long, nearly straight, 

 and clothed with ferruginous woolly tomentum. The leaves are digi- 

 tately trifoliolate, the leaflets obovate-oblong, 5 to 6 inches long. One 

 drawback to the cultivation of this plant is that it has been so extremely 

 slow in coming into bloom, blooming only in hothouses of considerable 

 size. Regarding the possibilities of this plant in the United States, Mr. 

 George W. Oliver states : " Very likely this plant will flower oftener 

 and more profusely in this country than in Europe, particularly England, 

 because of our higher summer temperature, which enables the plant to 

 grow rapidly and ripen its wood." (Adapted from The Garden Magazine, 

 vol. 7, p. 229, and Oliver, Flora of Tropical Africa, vol. 2, p. 252.) 



45609. GossYPruM bakbadense L. Malvaceae. Cotton. 

 " Native tree cotton, called purple cotton by the natives." (Gray.) 



45610. Chexopodium ambrosioides L. Chenopodiaceae. 



From Bahia, Brazil. Seeds procured by Mr. Edward Higgins, American 

 consul at Bahia. Received December 20, 1917. 



Known in Brazil as herva de Santa Maria or Mastruz. A viscid glandular, 

 rankly smelling perennial herb, native to tropical America, but widely nat- 

 uralized and growing abundantly in North America, especially in the eastern 

 United States, as a coarse weed of the roadside and waste places. Its me- 

 dicinal importance is due to the volatile oil which it contains. A very active 

 anthelmintic is obtained when the bruised fruit or the expressed juice of the 

 plant is used. It is frequently employed for the expulsion of lumbricoid worms, 

 e.specially in children. (Adapted from The National Standard Dispensatory, 



p. m.) 



45611. Saccharum officinarum L. Poacese. Sugar cane. 



From Trinidad, British West Indies. Seeds presented by the St. Clair 

 Experiment Station, Department of Agriculture. Received December 21, 

 1917. 



" Louisiana 511. One of the sugar-cane seedlings tested in 1908 at the 

 Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station at Audubon Park, New Orleans ; it is 

 particularly noteworthy because of the unusually high sucrose content (16.3 

 per cent) for Louisiana conditions. The parent cane was Trinidad 189." (H. P. 

 Agee, Louisiana Bulletin No. 127, May, 1911.) 



