16 , SEEDS AXD PLANTS IMPORTED. 



wild I am not prepared to say. One Japanese authority asserts that it grows 

 all over Japan, a statement I am unable to verify. A specimen in the botanical 

 garden at Tokyo is about 12 feet high, with a very dense, spreading, round 

 head and short trunk. It is very ornamental. The fruit when fully ripe is 

 pleasantly acidulated and juicy. It is apparently made up of a large number 

 of densely crowded sections, quite distinct from eacli other, l)ut radiating from 

 a small central stone or hard seed. On this si>ecimen the fruit was red, but 

 there are varieties with fruits of different colors. A white-fruited kind, having 

 comparatively large fruit, is said to be of very excellent quality. The tree 

 is connnonly propagated by seed, but the .Tapane.se assert that it can also be 

 grafted on the mulberry. It is planted by them partly for fruit and partly for 

 ornament, but not largely for either purpose. The bark is an important dye- 

 stuff. (Adapted from The American Garden, vol. 12, p. S2.) 



48505 and 48506. 



From Transvaal, South Africa. Presented by Mr. George Thomcroft, 

 Winter Bros., Barberton. Received November 7, 1919. 



48505. Aloe pretokiexsis Pole Evans. Liliaceae. 



Aloe pretoriensis is found commonly on many of the kopjes around 

 Pretoria. It grows plentifully on the northern slopes of Mentjes Kop, 

 and extends from here in an easterly and westerly direction on the range 

 of hills composed of the Daasport quartzite ; it is also found in the 

 Spekboom Valley near Lydenburg, at Barberton, and along the foot of 

 the Lebombo Range of mountains. 



The mo.st distinctive featui-e of the plant is its tall branched inflores- 

 cence, the racemes of which are densely clustered with brightly colored 

 flowers; so conspicuous are they that they form a bright-scarlet patch of 

 color in the landscape and are visible from a considerable distance. The 

 flowers contain a quantity of honey and consequently attract large num- 

 bers of brilliant suubirds. The dense rosettes of tapering leaves, usually 

 withered at the tips, have frequently a very characteristic red hue about 

 them and spring from a stoutish stem 4 to 5 inches in diameter. The 

 stem is dark bro\Aii to black in color, extremely rough, and clothed 

 throughout its entire length by the remains of withered leafstalks. At 

 first sight this Aloe certainly resembles A. lineata in general habit, but on 

 closer examination it is found that the leaves are more narrowly linear- 

 lanceolate than those of Aloe lineata. (Adapted from The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, vol. 56, 3d ser., p. 105.) 



48506. Cyrtanthus thorncroftii C. H. Wright. Amaryllidaceise. 



An African bulbous plant with two long naiTow leaves and bearing a 

 short 2-flowered scape. The small light-red flowers are nearly an inch 

 across. (Adapted from Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, p. 

 J,21, 1909.) 



48507. Crataegus mexicana Moc. and Sesse. Malacese. 



From Guadalajara, Mexico. Presented by Mr. F. S. Furnivall, through 

 Mr. Andrew J. McConnico, American consul. Received November 8, 1919. 

 " White thorn, commonly known as the ' manzanilla ' or ' tejecote,' is indige- 

 nous to the mountain sections of Mexico and Guatemala : the fruit (a little apple 

 about the size of the American crab apple) is insipid in the raw state but very 

 valuable for making jelly ; the tree or shrub may be used with marked success 

 as a stock in budding and grafting apples and pears." {_Fiirnivall.) 

 For previous introduction, see S. P. I. No. 464S1. 



