52 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



42058 to 42065— Continued. 



42064. Phaseolus aureus Roxb. Fabacese. Mung bean. 



" Nok too. Ground find made into nwok, a blancmange; also conked as 

 a vegetable." 



42065. Tbiticum aestivum L. Poacese. Wheat. 

 {Triticum vulgare Till.) 



" Meal is the Korean name. Made into flour used for dole, a substance 

 like fallen dumpling; also for cooksoo, i. e., vermicelli." 



42066. Bambos otADi a Humb. and Bonpl. Poacese. Guad.ua. 



(Guadua angustifolia Kunth.) 



From Puerto Bertoni, Paraguay. Presented by Dr. Moises S. Bertoni. 



Received February 2, 191G. 



"In connection with guaduas I must notice the guadua itself, the most indis- 

 pensable plant of all New Granada after the plantain, the cane, and maize. 

 It might be called the lumber tree, for it supplies all our fencing (except walls 

 of brick, rammed earth, and rarely of stone), also the woodwork of most 

 houses, and whatever is made of boards at the North. It is an enormous grass, 

 like the bamboo of the eastern Tropics, growing, however, to a less heigbt, 

 only 30 to 40 feet. The slender foliage is of inconceivable beauty, comparing 

 with that of other trees as ostrich feathers do with goose quills. The stem 

 is about 6 inches in diameter, with joints about 20 inches apart. The th 

 ness of the wood is nearly an inch. When poles or slats are wanted, the s1 

 is split into four, six. or eight parts. For boards for the top of a coarse table, 

 bench, or bedstead, it is opened and flattened out, splitting almost at every inch 

 of width, but not coming entirely apart. For a dish, candle case, grease pot, 

 or extemporaneous vessel for carrying drink to a company of hunters or labor- 

 ers, it is cut off just below the partition. Such a receptacle is called a ' tarro.' 

 Tarros of double capacity are made for bringing the domestic supply of water 

 for a family by taking a piece two joints long, with a septum at each end and 

 one in the middle. A hole is made in the upper and middle septa; and if they 

 be used for carrying molasses a bung can be put in or an orange used for a 

 stopper. Bottles of a single joint are used for holding castor oil, etc. In short, 

 the uses of the guadua are innumerable. The guadua starts from the ground 

 with the full diameter, or Dearly so, but the joints are at first very 

 short. Some trees send out brandies, and they are long, straggling, and 

 terribly thorny. Others grow with a diameter of only 2 inches and make good 

 poles for bringing down oranges, every one of which has to be torn from the 

 tree, or it decays without falling. The cavities of the guadua often contain 

 water. It is erroneously believed that the quantity increases and diminishes 

 with the phases of the moon. I must state one other thing about the guadua 

 which is unusual in the vegetable kingdom here, bul very common at the North. 

 It is apt to take entire possession of the ground on which ii grows. Now a 

 square mile covered with the same species, say a pine, an oak. or the beech, 

 an acre covered with the same species of grass, or whortleberry, or other plant 

 is no uncommon thing at the North, hut in tin- Tr<»iiics it is quite different. 

 Plants are not gregarious here, still less exclusive. I have seen the guava 

 grow in natural orchards where most of the trees in a considerable space were 

 Psidium, but even this is rare, and in general you can not expect, where you 

 have found a plain you want, to find others of the same species near il. If I 

 wish to find a second lime tree, for instance, it is of no more use to look in the 

 neighborhood where I found the first than in any ether. But a ' guadual ' is 



