﻿6 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



The chingma, the so-called China jute or Tientsin fiber (S. P. I. 

 No. 39361), which yields a harsher and stronger fiber than the Indian 

 jute and is used for carpet making, has been introduced from Ichang, 

 China, and, if improved methods for extracting the fiber can be 

 devised, may prove a profitable crop in America. 



The attempt to save from extinction the last survivor of a species 

 of tree closely related to our cultivated cotton, in order that hybrids 

 with it may be made, has a great deal more than a sentimental inter- 

 est. Seeds from the dying tree of this Kokia drynarioides (S. P. I. 

 No. 39354) from Molokai, have been secured by Mr. Rock, of Hawaii. 



The doom boom of the South Africa veldt {Acacia horrida), the 

 most widely distributed of all South African trees and the char- 

 acteristic landscape tree in the pictures of big-game hunting in 

 South Africa, appears to be a promising hedge plant and windbreak 

 for trial in Texas (S. P. I. No. 39355). 



The most beautiful of the flowering trees of Java (Spathodea 

 campanulata) , introduced from Africa into that island, which is in 

 bloom there almost throughout the whole year, was sent in by Dr. 

 B. T. Galloway several years ago and has flowered in southern 

 Florida, and new importations of seed have consequently been made 

 (S. P. I. No. 39415). To Mr. W. M. Matheson will go the honor of 

 the first introduction of this tree into Florida, for he brought it in 

 earlier from Jamaica. 



The success of various species of Tamarix as low windbreaks in 

 Texas has made it advisable to get together the other species of this 

 genus, and two of these have been imported from the desert of 

 Farab, Bokhara, Turkestan (S. P. I. Nos. 39628 and 39629). 



The accounts of the Mahwa tree (Madhuca indica, S. P. I. No. 

 39325), the fleshy flowers of which produce food annually in India 

 worth over a million dollars, haA^e made it seem desirable to introduce 

 it into Florida and Porto Rico, even though these dried flowers have 

 an unpleasant odor of mice and appear to be somewhat indigestible. 

 The value of this tree seems truly remarkable, and it deserves investi- 

 gation from an American point of view. 



The rapid growth of avocado groves in California and Florida 

 and the growing realization that a fruit which produces over 29 

 percent of fat is more than a mere table delicacy make the dis- 

 semination of the Guatemalan and Mexican hard-shelled spring and 

 winter ripening seedlings of remarkable shipping qualities, which 

 have in recent years been grown in California, of much more than 

 passing interest (S. P. I. Nos. 39369 to 39375). 



American Consul Charles K. Moser's discovery of a delicious 

 Ceylonese mango almost as large as a coconut, with a striking red 

 blush and almost no fiber, shows that all of the most desirable types 



