1116 



oblong, acute or obtuse leaves 2| to 5 inches long, 

 purplish-red solitary flowers about an inch wide, and 

 oblong, -kidney-shaped, red fruits about 1| inches 

 long, in bunches of 18 or 20, with whitish, scant, 

 juicy, aromatic, sub-acid flesh without a trace of 

 sugar and containing many seeds. (Adapted from Blume , 

 Flora Java, Annonaceae, pp. 19-21, plate 4, and from 

 P. J. Wester, Philippine Agricultural Review, vol. 6, 

 no. 7, p. 321. ) 



Notes from Correspondents abroad. 



Mr. Frank N. Meyer writes from Ichang, Hupeh, 

 China, April 16, 1917: 



"The day before yesterday I returned here from a 

 sixteen days' trip into the mountains and plain of 

 this section of the immense Hupeh Province, investi- 

 gating mainly problems connected with Pyrus calleryana, 

 Pistacia chinensis, tung oil and some minor things." 



"Pyrus calleryana is simply a marvel. One finds it 

 growing under all sorts of conditions, one time on 

 dry, sterile mountain slopes; then again with its 

 roots in standing water at the edge of a pond; some- 

 times in open pine forest, then again among scrub on 

 blue-stone ledges in the burning sun; sometimes in low 

 bamboo jungle in the company of the Chinese pistache, 

 Vitex negundo, Cudnmia triloba, the jujube, Ulmus parvifolia, 

 Rosa mult i flora, etc., and then again along the course of 

 a fast flowing mountain stream or on the occasionally 

 burned over slope of a pebbly hill. 



"The tree is nowhere found in groves, always as 

 scattered specimens and but very few large trees were 

 seen. There are reasons for that, namely the natives 

 cut down the larger specimens for their lumber, from 

 which fine furniture is made, while if a young tree 

 occurs at a suitable place it is most times used as a 

 stock for an improved variety of pear. 



"We made a trip of three days to the northwest 

 from here to look at a very large specimen of a wild 

 pear from which a large village had obtained its name 

 (Tang 11 shu ya) but the tree had become old and had 

 been cut down 40 to 50 years already. It was said to 

 measure something like 11 or 12 feet in circumference. 

 The largest trunk I measured was 6 feet in circumfer- 

 ence, but it was as a stock for an Improved pear. 



"The name of this wild pear is everywhere around 

 here "Tang li", meaning "Crab-apple pear", on account 

 of the resemblance of its fruit to wild crab apples 



