OCTOBER 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1914. 33 



39465 to 39484— Continued. (Quoted notes by Miss Paula Hitter.) 



39480. Beta vulgaris L. Chenopodiacese. Beet. 



" Chun ta. The heavy leaves are used as greens, something like 

 spinach." 



39481. Daucus carota L. Apiacese. Carrot. 

 " Planted like ours and almost if not quite like some of our kinds. 



a " 



39482. Brassica napus L. Brassicacese. Rape. 



39483. Solanum melongena L. Solanaceae. Eggplant. 

 "Chi'eh tzu. ,y 



39484. Coriandrum sativum L. Apinceae. Coriander. 

 " Yen ts'ai. A green like parsley." 



39485. Mangifera indica L. Anacardiacese. Mango. 



From Ceylon. Presented by Mr. C. K. Moser, American consul, Harbin, 

 Manchuria. Received December 2. 1914. 



"A few months before I left Ceylon a Singhalese friend sent me a few 

 mangos which he called" coconut mangos, which he said were from Jaffna and 

 very rare. They were about as large as a coconut and similar in shape, the 

 skin and flesh a deep, rich yellow, except upon the cheeks, where burned a 

 blush as glorious as any that ever dyed a peach. They were the most delicious 

 fruits my wife and I ever tasted in all our lives. We never saw either in 

 India or Ceylon any others like them, and when I wrote to Jaffna I was 

 informed they did not grow there, but that they were evidently a rare variety 

 which seldom fruited in Ceylon and then only in certain localities. Unfortu- 

 nately, I was too busy to investigate them, and I have forgotten the Singhalese 

 name which Dr. Brown, of Jaffna, gave for them, but I saved the seeds, and 

 under separate cover I am sending them to you in the hope that you may be 

 able to plant them in Florida and grow trees from them. If you should do this 

 and succeed with them, I wish to stipulate only one thing; that one tree be- 

 longs to me, and that I shall have its fruits some time. It is certainly not 

 commonly known in the Middle East, and it certainly is a fruit for a king. 

 It has neither fibrous flesh nor petroleum flavor ; the fruits from which these 

 seeds came were perfect." {Moser.) 



39486 and 39487. 



From Penang, Straits Settlements. Presented by the director, Penang 

 Botanical Gardens. Received December 3, 1914. 



39486. Amorphophallus haematospadix Hook. f. Araceae. 



An araceous herb with short turbinate tubers, 2-i inches in diameter, 

 3-parted leaves 20 inches across, and oblanceolate leaflets. Peduncle 

 brown, striated, terete. Sheaths appressed at the base, red-brown. 

 Spathe 5 inches long: limb primrose yellow; tube striate with pink, dark 

 purple within. Spadix sessile, 7 inches long, tip blood red. (Adapted 

 from Hooker, Flora of British India, vol. 6, p. 517.) 



74545°— 17 3 



