34 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



39486 and 39487 —Continued. 



39487. Arisaema fimbriatum Masters. Aracese. 



"Arisaema fimbriatum belongs to Engler's .section Triseeta, having two 

 stalked, leaves each deeply divided into three ovate-acute glabrous seg- 

 ments. The petioles are long, pale purplish rose colored, sprinkled with 

 small purplish spots. The spathes are oblong acute or acuminate, con- 

 volute at the base, brownish purple, striped longitudinally with narrow- 

 whitish bands. The spadix is cylindrical, slender, terminating in a long 

 whiplike extremity, much longer than the spathe. The flowers have the 

 arrangement and structure common to the genus, the females being 

 crowded at the base of the spadix, the males immediately above them, 

 and these passing gradually into fleshy incurved processes, which in 

 their turn pass gradually into long slender, purplish threads, covering 

 the whole of the free end of the spadix." (Master*. In Qordeners' 

 Chronicle, 1884, vol. 2, p. 680.) 



39488. Cartca candamarcensis Hook. f. Papayaceae. Papaya. 



From California. Presented by Mr. William A. Spinks, Monrovia, Cal. 

 Received November 27, 1914. 

 " Seeds of a small-fruited papaya, from Spinks's ranch, near Duarte, Cal. 

 The fruit itself of this variety seems to be worthless. It turns quite yellow on 

 ripening.'' (Spinks.) 



39489. Betula japonica Siebold. Betulacese. Birch. 



From Hsiao Wutaishan, Chihli Province, China. Collected by Mr. Frank 

 N. Meyer, Agricultural Explorer for the Department of Agriculture. 



Seeds collected from herbarium material carried under Meyer No. 1163. 



"A tree ordinarily from 40 to GO, occasionally over 100 feet high, with a 



silvery white trunk; branches pendulous at the ends; young w 1 not downy, 



but furnished with glandular warts. Leaves broadly ovate, sometimes rather 

 diamond shaped; 1 to 2\ inches long, three-fourths to 1A inches wide; broadly 

 wedge shaped or truncate at the base, slenderly tapered at the apex, doubly 

 toothed; not downy, but dotted with glands on both surfaces; stalk one-half to 

 three-fourths inch long. Fruiting catkins three-fourths to 1} inches long, 

 one-third inch wide, cylindrical ; scales smooth except on the margin ; middle 

 lobes the smallest. Native of Europe (including Britain), especially of high 

 latitudes; also of parts of north Asia. This birch, with B. puoescens, forms the 

 B. alba of Linnaeus, but most authorities now concur in separating them. The 

 species is easily distinguished from H. pubescens by the warts on the young 

 branchlers and by the absence of down on all the younger vegetative parts. In 

 the latter respect it differs from all the other cultivated birches except 

 B. populifolia." (11'. ./. Bean, Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, 

 vol. 1, p. 263, under B. verrucosa.) 



39490 and 39491. 



From Funchal, Madeira. Presented by Mr. C. H. Gable, through Mr. C. V. 

 Piper, of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Received December 3, 1914. 



39490. Anpropogon hirtus L. Poaceae. 



Distribution. — A perennial tufted grass about 3 feet high, found in the 

 countries bordering on the .Mediterranean and southward through Africa 

 to the Cape of Good Hope, 



