94 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



40880. Zinziber officinale Rose. Zinziberacese. Ginger. 



From China. Collected by Mr. Frank N. Meyer, Agricultural Explorer 

 for the Department of Agriculture. Received June 30, 1915. 

 "(No. 1256. Peking. China. May 6, 1915.) A variety of wet-land ginger, 

 said to come from southern China, retailing in Peking at 10 cents (Mexican 

 silver) per catty of 16 ounces. Much used shredded in various diseases as a 

 condiment." (Meyer.) 

 Rhizomes. 



40881. Acrocomia fusiformis (Swartz) Sweet. Phcenicaceae. 



From Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. Presented by Mr. Juan T. Roig, 

 botanist, Agricultural Experiment Station. Received June 28, 1915. 



"Macau- tree of Jamaica, Corozo de Jamaica of Cuba. Trunk 10 to 30 feet 

 high, fusiform or swollen above the middle, armed with spines in rings. Leaves 

 pinnate, petioles and rachis densely armed. Inflorescence inclosed in two 

 spathes, inner complete, sparingly armed. Peduncles also armed with long black 

 spines. Fruit depressed globose, about 1 inch iu diameter, smooth. Seed very 

 hard, 1 celled, foramina lateral. A remarkably strong fiber called pita de 

 corozo is extracted from the rachis of the leaves of this palm and is used in 

 Cuba in the manufacture of brushes." (C. B. Doyle.) 



Erroneously referred to Acrocomia lasiospatha by Martius and Grisebach. 



40882 to 40885. Oryza sativa L. Poaeese. Rice. 



From Athens, Greece. Presented by the Societe Royale DAgriculture Hel- 

 lenique. Received June 16, 1915. 



40882. " Ostylia. Thessalian Lazarina rice." 



40883. " Beloca. Thessalian Lazarina rice." 



40884. " No. 43. Seed of Macedonia Edessa rice." 



40885. " No. 44. Seed of Macedonia Edessa rice." 



40886 to 40889. 



From Calcutta. India. Presented by Mr. William Bembower, Collins. Ohio. 

 Received June 25, 1915. 



40886. Bambos tti.ua Roxb. Poacese. Bamboo. 



"The common bamboo of Bengal, where it grows in great abundance 

 everywhere, flowering in May. Not uncommon in the deciduous forests 

 of Pegu, generally occupying lower and moister stretches of ground in 

 company with tinwa, Cephalostachyum pergracile, the dry hills surround- 

 ing: being covered with Dendrocalamus strictus." (Braiidis.) 



■■An evergreen or deciduous, csespitose, arboreous, gregarious bamboo. 

 Culms green or glabrous when young, gray-green when older, sometimes 

 streaked witli yellow. 20 to 70 feet high, not or little branched below; 

 2 to 4 inches in diameter ; nodes not swollen, the lower ones fibrous rooted ; 

 internodes 1 to 2 feet long, white scurfy when very young, ringed with 

 white below the nodes, the walls thin, 0.3 to 0.5 inch; branches many from 

 nearly all nodes, those of lowest ones thin, nearly leafless, horizontal. - ' 

 (./. S. Gamble, Bambuscw of British India. In Annals of tin Calcutta 

 Musi inn, ml. 7, p. 30.) 



See S. P. I. Nos. 19lv,!i and 21002 for previous introductions and de- 

 scription. 



