20 



1156. Triticum durum. Wheat. 



From Semipalatinsk, Siberia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, June 4, 

 1898. (5 packages.) 



"Arnautka," a hard white wheat, first quality; a spring variety. (See No. 1153.) 



1157. Triticum vulgare. Wheat 



From Semipalatinsk, Siberia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, June 4, 

 1898. (10 packages.) 



Chinese ; a spring variety. 



1158. Elaeagnus angustifolia. Oleaster. 



From Djarkent, Russian Turkestan. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, June 

 4,1898. (6 packages.) 



The form called E. hortensis. An edible market fruit. (See No. 1114.) 



1159. Medicago sativa. Turkestan alfalfa. 



From Kopal, Siberia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, June 4, 1898. 



Variety " turkestanica." Originally from Abakumovsky, near Kopal, Semiret- 

 chinsk Province, Siberia, N. lat. 46°. Professor Hansen writes: 



"I followed this plant from the cotton-growing sections of Bokhara and other 

 parts of Russian Turkestan into western China and to its northern limits near 

 Kopal, Siberia. 



" A large quantity of seed was obtained, but mostly from the cotton-growing sec- 

 tions (Bokhara, Samarkand, and Tashkend). The other five places were Sairam, 

 about 80 miles north of Tashkend; 150 miles north of Merke (Merke is in lat. 43° 

 and long. 73° east of Greenwich), in the Kirghiz Tartar steppes; Kuldja, China (lat. 

 43° 50', long. 81° 20' east), the farthest point east in my journey; Djarkent, lat. 44° 

 10', long. 80° east, and Kopal, lat. 45° 10', long. 79° east. These various importations 

 should be kept separate, as the plants will probably differ in hardiness. The last 

 five places are north of the cotton belt. From the last four places only a small 

 quantity of seed could be taken along in a rough adventuresome overland journey 

 of over 2,000 miles. That from Merke and Kopal will probably be the hardiest. 



" Prince Massalski of the department of agriculture at St. Petersburg, writes (in 

 The Industries of Russia, Vol. Ill, p. 459) : 



"'Lucern-clover, Medicago sativa, var. turkestanica, is the chief forage in use 

 throughout Central Asia, and to the settled population of Turkestan is of the 

 highest importance, since during the summer it forms the chief, and in winter, pre- 

 pared in the shape of hay, the only fodder for cattle. It is of all the greater impor- 

 tance because within the region populated by settled inhabitants there are no 

 meadows. Soft herbs and other grasses that grow up in the early spring in certain 

 parts of the steppes are quickly dried up by the hot rays of the sun, and give place 

 to coarse, prickly stubble, or in any case to less nutritive grasses that are in general 

 unfitted for sheep, camels, or steppe cattle, and still less fitted for horses or the cat- 

 tle of those who are settled in the oases, and are thus closely confined to the fore- 

 lands or rivers, and in most cases are far removed from the steppes/ Prince Massalski 

 describes the native methods of cultivation and irrigation and continues: 'The 

 native lucern would seem to be a cattle fodder that can not be replaced in countries 

 so dry and so hot as Turkestan and the Transcaspian Province. Parallel experi- 

 ments that have been made in the Merv oases, in the Transcaspian Province, in sow- 

 ing native and French lucern, under widely different conditions of water supply, 

 have shown that the native lucern, particularly where there is a lack of water, is 

 vastly superior to the French in the crops it yields, and that it is able to grow sat- 

 isfactorily with a minimum supply of water, a supply so small that European lucern 

 would perish from drought. This peculiarity of the native lucern is to be explained 

 by its peculiar structure. It possesses a very large root system, and its leaves are 

 covered with thick down; this, in conjunction with a deep-cut orifice on the leaf, 

 enables the plant on the one hand to imbibe the moisture from the deeper layers of 

 the soil, and ou the other hand to exhale it in very small quantity.' " (See Nos. 1101, 

 1150,1151,1169.) 



1160. Cucumis melo. Muskmelon 



From Kuldja, China. Received thr< 

 packages.) 



Variety " Ak-na-waht" (white sugar). 



From Kuldja, China. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, June 4, 1898. (20 

 packages.) 



