810 



pose we have secured one that from all points is an im- 

 provement upon the old standard. I am sending some cut- 

 tings which you will be able later on to distribute to 

 some of your southern states. We have found it here of 

 superior value from the standpoints of food value, soft- 

 ness, hardiness against low temperatures, and weight per 

 acre. It is a prodigious yielder." (Corrie.) 



Salix sp. (Salicaceae. ) 39191. Cuttings of a willow 

 from Semipalatinsk, Siberia. Presented by Prof. N. E. 

 Hansen, South Dakota Experiment Station. "Cuttings from 

 small trees I found growing along a creek about eighty 

 miles southwest of Semipalatinsk. This is a very dry 

 region with eight inches of annual rainfall, and the tem- 

 perature ranging from 50 degrees below zero P. in winter 

 to 106 degrees above in summer. The remarkable character- 

 istic about this willow is that the young shoots can be 

 tied into knots without breaking, so that it should be 

 a good basket willow and good for tying bundles of nursery 

 stock. " (Hansen. ) 



Securidaca longepedunculata . (Asclepiadaceae . ) 39298. 

 Seeds from Salisbury, Rhodesia. Presented by Mr. H. God- 

 frey Mundy, Government Agrostologist and Botanist. "A 

 much-branched shrub eight to ten feet high with violet 

 flowers in terminal racemes, found in Abyssinia, the Mo- 

 zambique district and in Upper and lower Guinea. The 

 bark of this plant affords the Buaze fiber of Zambesi- 

 land." (Oliver, Flora of Tropical Africa.) Of this fiber 

 as early as 1857 i was reported: " The Buaze fiber ap- 

 pears to resemble flax, and as prepared by you (Messrs. 

 Pye Bros, of London) will be equal to flax worth 50 or 60 

 pounds per ton, but we could hardly speak positively to 

 the value unless we had one or two hundredweight to try 

 on our machinery. However, we think the result is promis- 

 ing, and we hope further inquiry will be made as to the 

 probable supply of the material." Dr. Livingstone states 

 "that the only use it has been put to is in making threads 

 on which the natives string their beads. Elsewhere the 

 split tendons of animals are employed for this purpose. 

 This seems to be of equal strength, for a firm thread of 

 it feels like catgut in the hand, and would rather cut the 

 fingers than break." (Dodge, Fiber Plants.) 



Sterculia carthaginens is . (Sterculiaceae . ) 39221. Seeds 

 of the anacahuita from Guantanamo, Cuba. Presented by Mr. 

 Juan T. Roig, Botanist, Cuban Experiment Station. "The 

 most popular tree at Guantanamo. From the flowers a de- 

 coction is made against cough. The seeds are toasted and 

 eaten like peanuts." (Roig.) 



