﻿8 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



crenata). He has been working with these for many years and has 

 a remarkable collection of bearing trees at his pla'ce in Marjdand. 

 The selections of the Chinese species are so resistant to the bark 

 disease as to make it safe to recommend them for orchards, where 

 with careful watching they ought to be as safe investments as peaches 

 or pears or others of our fruit trees. They are not large forest trees. 

 The fate of that other Chinese chestnut (Castanea heniyi, No. 45670), 

 which grows to a, height of 75 to 100 feet on the upper Yangtze 

 River as far west as Mount Omei, remains to be seen. If it should 

 prove resistant to the bark disease it might in a measure take the 

 place of our forest chestnut in certain localities. Although the bar- 

 berry has been given a jolt through the association which its rust 

 disease has with the rust of wheat, there are species that are per- 

 fectly safe from attacks of rust and may be grown freely as door- 

 yard shrubs. Let us hope that this is the case with Dr. Van Fleet's 

 cross (No. 45477) between Berberis tvilsonae, which E. H. Wilson 

 found in China, and B. aggregata. The hybrids are very handsome 

 plants for borders, having a spreading low-growing habit, and are 

 hardy in Maryland. 



We are so accustomed to think of our own cereal crops as always 

 having been the great food-producing plants of the world that it is 

 a surprise to find in Mexico under cultivation to-day a relative of our 

 common pigweed which in the times of Montezuma formed one of 

 the staple cereal foods of the Aztecs. The seeds of this amaranth 

 {Amaranthus paniculatus, No. 45535) filled 18 granaries, each hold- 

 ing 9,000 bushels, in the time of the great ruler. It was made into 

 cakes known as " alegria " and was so highly valued that it had a part 

 in the religious ceremonies of that time. Our present interest in it 

 arises from the fact that it has a most remarkably low water require- 

 ment and consequently has distinct possibilities in our Southwest, 

 where water is precious. It may be hoped that our predilection for 

 other but no more palatable grains will not be so strong as to make 

 it impossible to market this ancient one of the Aztecs, which Mrs. 

 Zelia Nuttall sends in from Mexico. 



Lamb's-quarters (Chenop odium album) has been used in this 

 country by many people, and those who know it declare it is more 

 delicate than that introduced vegetable, spinach, which is now the 

 fashion. The huauhtli of the Aztecs (Chenopodium nuttaUiae, No. 

 45536), which Mrs. Nuttall sends in from Mexico, is there used when 

 the seeds are "in the milk," and she considers it a most delicate 

 vegetable. 



One of the most interesting of recently introduced vegetables is the 

 mitsuba of Japan (No. 45247), sent in by Mr. Barbour Lathrop as 

 one of the commonest vegetables among the Japanese. Botanically 

 it is Deringa (or Cryptotaenia) canadensis, and curiously enough 



