670 



PHILIPPINES. Manila. Mr. 0. W. Barrett, writes April 

 5 1913: "Mr. Wester is exceedingly busy at Lamao Experi- 

 ment Station in building up a very large and interesting 

 ollection of the world's best citrus plants. We are con- 

 tinually finding new and more or less peculiar native 

 varieties, many of which appear to be natural hybrids, 

 some kinds carrying two, three, and perhaps four species 

 in their "blood". Mr. Wester has writen the manuscript of 

 a Citrus bulletin intended for arousing the interest of 

 the Philippine planter in this industry which we hope will 

 within a few years develop into one of considerable im- 

 portance. I am leaving to-day for a brief visit to Min- 

 danao. It is quite possible that I may be able to procure 

 some interesting material for you on this trip. You will 

 be interested to know that a new fruit from southern Pa- 

 lawan, discovered last year, bids fair to put the mango- 

 steen itself 'in the shade'. None of us in this Division 

 have seen the fruit itself, but although it is said to be 

 a vine the leaf much resembles that of the Durian: the 

 fruit itself is said to be on the same style as the mango- 

 steen but Is very much larger, contains more edible pulp, 

 and the flavor is, according to report, about ten times 

 better than that of the mangosteen. We have just one live 

 plant but we hope to get a considerable number of the 

 fruits in June. We have several thrifty branches of the 

 Siamese seedless pomelo and as soon as budwood is avail- 

 able we shall take great pleasure in sending same to you. 

 Mr. Boyle is much interested in the peculiar hairiness of 

 the young shoots of this peculiar variety; the pubescence 

 disappears after a few months but its presence is in my 

 opinion a very distinctive point. We are still waiting 

 for photographs and further details as to the plantation 

 from which we received our budwood. You will be interest- 

 ed to know that we sent yesterday, a collector to Portu- 

 guese Timor, --at least we have first claim on all the. 

 economic material he gets there. It is claimed there are 

 several very distinct citrus types in the East Indies. 

 Another collector going through the interior of New Guinea 

 promises us 'first choice'. Our banana collection now 

 contains well over 100 'named sorts', some of which, of 

 course, are undoubtedly duplicates. We have succeeded 

 fairly well in raising a number of interesting African and 

 Indian sorts from seeds. Mr. E. D. Merrill, Botanist of 

 the Bureau of Science, promises to try to straighten out 

 the taxonomy of Musa if we will furnish him fresh mater- 

 ial; it seems that the recent monograph of Musa is a fail- 

 ure. We are continually finding wild bananas here in the 

 hinterland of Luzon, strange Musa spp. some of which 

 appear to be undescribed . " 



