THE PLANT WORIvD 275 



States ; the famous wrapper tobacco from Sumatra, of which there is a 

 large export from that country to America ; the date palm from the Sahara 

 and the banks of the Tigris, whose successful cultivation in Arizona and 

 California has been practically assured by the experiments already made ; 

 the pistache nut from the Levant, a delicious table nut as common in Greece 

 as are salted peanuts in this country ; the mango from the oriental tropics, 

 a fruit which will some day be as common on American tables as the grape 

 fruit, and which can be successfully grown in southern Florida and in 

 Porto Rico ; the famous Smyrna fig. the successful introduction of which 

 was due in part to the work of the Department of Agriculture and which 

 has led to the establishment of a profitable industry in California ; a new 

 Japanese salad plant called Udo, which may some day rival our well- 

 known salads in importance ; the hard-shelled almond from Spain, the 

 kernels of which bring the highest prices paid by confectioners and whose 

 delicate flavors are not equaled by any of the almonds hitherto cultivated 

 in California ; a superlative variety of horse-radish from Moravia, called 

 Maliner Kren, which is considered by Viennese gourmets the finest fla- 

 vored variety in the world ; a brewing barley from Austro-Hungary called 

 Hanna, which is recognized throughout southern Europe as the best 

 brewing barley on the Continent ; and the long-staple silky cotton from 

 Egypt, of which our manufacturers import every year many thousand 

 dollars' worth from the Nile Valley, and which has been crossed success- 

 fully with the short-staple Upland cotton of our Southern States. 



CEREAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



Introduced grains. — The exhibit of introduced grains consists of a 

 number of specimens in different stages, both before and after threshing 

 and when manufactured into meal and flower, showing the most important 

 varieties that have so far been obtained by the Department of Agriculture 

 in foreign countries and brought to the United States for growing by our 

 farmers. Several varieties of durum (macaroni) wheat, Japanese rice, 

 Swedish Select oat, emmer, and three important varieties of Russian prose 

 (broom-corn millet) are given special prominence, while several kinds of 

 oats, barley, and buckwheat are less conspicuously shown. 



Durum wheat. — Because of its relative importance a large part of the 

 space assigned to cereals is devoted to Durum wheat and special attention 

 is directed to a number of important products which can be made from 

 that grain, thus emphasizing its commercial value. Bromide pictures 

 illustrate many interesting features in the grain industry and show the 

 various cereals in cultivation. 



Swedish Select and Sixty Day oats. — Two other specially valuable 

 grains introduced into this country by the Department of Agriculture are 

 the Swedish Select and Sixty Day oats, the former being particularly 

 adapted to the northernmost districts of the United States and the Sixty 

 Day oat to the middle latitudes. 



[to be concluded.] 



