698 



better than I had feared or hoped. We were met here by a 

 delegation from the chief date village, fine menn, who 

 wanted to take us on to their town at once, but I prefer 

 to rest till tomorrow. The great trade date is the Siady, 

 as they pronounce it, which goes by caravan to "rail end" 

 at Kharga. There are a few trees of Sultany reported but 

 said to be very old and I can as yet learn of no young 

 ones. Will send what fortune later. 



What do you think of rice on the heaviest red adobe 

 land, too strong in salt and alkali for barley? Some of 

 it is now turning brown; harvest in November. It is said 

 to have been here from Roman times. This looks to me to 

 be the biggest find of the trip. I am arranging for a 

 camel load of the new grain to be sent to the rail end. 

 Expect "DO start back in four or five days, when I shall 

 hope to have found Sultany offshoots." 



China. Pekin. Mr. Frank N. Meyer, agricultural ex- 

 plorer, writes September 16: "Last Sunday night (Sept. 14) 

 I returned here to Peking from an extended journey into 

 the mountainous regions, West and N. W. of Peking, where I 

 have been studying up the tree and shrub flora of the 

 Hsiao Wui tai shan, the different varieties of persimmons, 

 some cherry plantations and walnut and chestnut trees. As 

 regards collecting herbarium material in Hsiao Wu tai 

 shan, I have been quite successful, I think, for I have 

 over 80 sp . of woody plant* in my possession now. In so far 

 as the persimmon question is concerned I have not been 

 very lucky, for we have a very bad persimmon year here 

 around Peking. Sometimes trees haven't a single fruit on 

 them. The Chinese say that the early rains ruined the 

 flowers and no fruit was set. One grower stated there 

 were such things as trees which bore either exceedingly 

 little or even no fruit at all (in other words male 

 trees). He stated however that the Chinese rebudded such 

 trees as soon as they found out such facts. About the 

 equatorial incision being closer to the peduncle or far- 

 ther away from it, we v/ere told that really no attention 

 was being paid to it by anybody. The big majority of 

 fruits (Tamopans) that I have seen however seem to have 

 the incision closer to the peduncle than In the middle of 

 the fruit. Of the cherries I have taken photos of the 

 trees and collected herbarium material, that is of the 

 sweet cherries; of the real bush-cherry (Pnuiu-x tonicn- 

 tosa) I have not seen a single good plantation on this 

 trip. One finds it extremely difficult to obtain correct 

 information regarding minor matters in fruits. The one 

 Chinaman knows less than the other. The fruit dealers too 



