42 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



tracted sufficient attention to its possible value for this country 

 to create a demand for the seed by private individuals in Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon. The fact that trees in orchard form in central 

 Iowa proved hardier than the Hill's Chili, supposed to be the 

 hardiest peach grown there, indicates its possible utilization along 

 the northern belt of peach culture in the United States, while its 

 behavior in the southwest indicates a drought resistance which 

 can scarcely fail of utilization in California, Arizona and Texas. 



In the utilization of the bamboo in this country, which is a 

 problem that will require many years to solve, the first step has 

 been successfully taken and bamboo groves of the Japanese timber 

 species are now successfully growing in northern Florida and Louis- 

 iana, and the use of a single Indian species as a windbreak has been 

 successful in Texas. Whether or not the edible bamboo will find 

 a home in this country remains yet to be seen. Plants of this 

 species with which we have experimented have shown themselves 

 unsuited to the surroundings in which we placed them. 



The Tamopan persimmon of north China which Professor Sar- 

 gent predicted several years ago would be worth a half million 

 dollars if introduced and grown extensively in this country, has 

 been brought in by our Explorer, Mr. Frank N. Meyer, and after 

 being fruited it has been propagated for small orchard plantings in 

 the Southern States. While the preliminary trials of this persimmon 

 on roots of the native Virginia species have not shown it to be as 

 hardy as we hoped it would be, they have proved beyond question 

 that in this four-inch persimmon which is normally seedless and 

 much less astringent than the ordinary Japanese and American 

 forms we have a valuable acquisition to the list of American fruits. 



To give a list merely of those beginnings which at this time 

 seem unusually promising would require more time than you would 

 care to listen to me. I could tell you of our experiments with the 

 wood-oil tree of China, the Zante currant of Greece, the pistache 

 nut of Sicily and its relative from China, the carob of the Medi- 

 terranean, the avocado of the western tropics, the South African 

 Carissa, the South African forage grass discovered by Cecil Rhodes, 

 the Chinese jujubes, the wetland Eucalyptus from Timor, the Sudan 

 grass from Khartoum, and even the noted mangosteen from the 

 Malay Archipelago, trees of which are now growing on the Canal 



