172 The Journal 
which has proven more resistant to 
drouth there than any other breed. 
The Philippine Islands are now import- 
ing, I am told, the milch breeds of the 
water buffalo which we discovered were 
of such value in British India. 
Sent by Mr. Lathrop to Sweden and 
Finland to recuperate from an attack 
of typhoid picked up in Ceylon, I was 
able to bring to the attention of the 
department the remarkable seed-breed- 
ing establishment of Svalof and inci- 
dentally to establish the Finnish Black 
oat and the Finnish turnip in Alaska, 
both of which have, according to Mr. 
Georgeson, added greatly to the food 
production of that country. 
GREAT WEALTH OF PLANT MATERIAL IN 
CHINA 
We returned to America in 1900, and 
Mr. Lathrop again disappeared for a 
year from active service for the cause 
of plant introduction, returning in the 
autumn of 1901 with the proposal of 
an Oriental journey for the depart- 
ment, which was accepted, and which 
in returns exceeded any of the previous 
expeditions. It brought to the atten- 
tion of the Office the great wealth of 
plant material in China and through 
the acquaintance made of Dr. Augustine 
Henry, the veteran plant student of 
that vast country, led ultimately to 
the exploration of it by our associate 
Frank N. Meyer, who spent nine years 
in its study. Our expedition resulted 
in the introduction of a collection of 
the East Indian and Cochin China 
mangos which are now fruiting as 
large trees in southern Florida, the 
first of the Persian Gulf date palms, 
from a single tree of which in southern 
California as much as_ seventy-five 
dollars’ worth of fruit were sold this 
year by the owner. Mr. Lathrop sent 
me to the Persian Gulf while he made 
a trip to the east coast of Sumatra, 
where he secured a quantity of seed of 
the Sumatra wrapper tobacco in the 
face of the opposition of the Dutch 
planters there. The plants from these 
seeds entered into the hybrids which 
have made the Connecticut tobacco 
famous. 
From the rich plant field of Japan 
of Heredity 
was sent in a collection of twenty-nine 
varieties of the flowering cherries, and 
those who see the cherries on the 
Speedway in Washington, or the older 
collection at my place ‘‘In the Woods,” 
or the collection in the Golden Gate 
Park in San Francisco, must thank 
Mr. Lathrop for the inspiration and 
encouragement which this collection 
gave to the widespread cultivation of 
these glorious trees in America. 
GRASSES AND FRUITS SECURED IN AFRICA 
Returning again to America in the 
summer of 1902, Mr. Lathrop and I 
started out in the autumn of the 
same year to make a hurried survey 
of the Dark Continent and sailed down 
its east coast, stopping at the German 
colony of Dar Es Salaam and the 
British colonies of Natal and the Cape. 
The Rhodes grass, seeds of which 
were given us by the manager of the 
Cecil Rhodes estate near Cape Town 
and which today has become an im- 
portant hay crop in Florida, Texas 
and California, and the Carissa, finest 
of all evergreen hedge plants, which 
has now become an established thing 
in south Florida, were secured that 
year. The Spek-boom, a forage plant 
upon which the elephants feed, a 
remarkable small fruited pineapple from 
Natal, the Limoncella apple of Naples, 
the Kaffir orange and Kaffir plum of 
Natal and Cape Town and the Lathrop 
mango from the Island of Chiloane off 
the coast of Beira, have all become 
established in America as the result 
of this last expedition of Mr. Lathrop’s, 
which ended in the summer of 1903. 
Although since then Mr. Lathrop has 
conducted no long expeditions, his in- 
terest in the work of plant introduction 
has continued. During his travels he 
has sent us many valuable things, in- 
cluding a most complete account, with 
photographs, of the soy-bean products 
of Japan, and during his last trip to 
that country he sent us what is known 
there as the most popular vegetable of 
the Japanese people—the mitsuba—a 
plant which, although common in our 
own woods, has never been domesti- 
cated, so to speak, by Americans, 
although in Japan it is grown as ex- 
tensively as celery is with us. 
