﻿16 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



the grass under mature thorn trees without doing them much damage, and as 

 the seeds germinate most readily after being soaked in boiling water or half 

 roasted, these grass fires aid rather than retard regrowth. Chopping off trees 

 to the ground only induces an abundant coppice growth, but it is found that by 

 chopping them off 2 feet above ground during summer the coppice growth is 

 more easily controlled, and the stump often dies. Native localities usually 

 become free of thorn trees eventually, partly through the unrestricted native 

 demand for fuel, kraalwood, etc., and partly through the browsing of goats, 

 which of all artificial methods is the surest means of keeping the tree down. 

 A small brown scale insect, however (Prosopophora prosopidis var. mimosae), 

 Is found to kill the trees wholesale on the occasions of its visits in the Bedford 

 district. During very dry winters it is not an uncommon practice to fell a few 

 leafy thorn trees daily as a green bite for stock ; during summer the shade of 

 the spreading tree is sought after by cattle and sheep ; young plants are always 

 browsed, and where obtainable the roots are relished by goats ; and for scenic 

 effect there is perhaps no prettier tree, growing as it often does on a flat, rocky 

 subsoil which will carry no better growth; on hot, rocky banks it is common, 

 but it is never found in high, dense forest. Bark rough, thick, dark ; formerly 

 much used locally in the tanning of leather, and even now, at about half the 

 price per ton as compared with black wattle, it pays to employ it for local use 

 but not for export, as the percentage of tannin for the bulk is too low. 



" The doom boom is the host of an innumerable lot of pests, being often 

 cleared of foliage by caterpillars of several large moths and by bagworms ; its 

 timber is often bored by Apate dorsalis and Chrysobothris dorsata; certain ants 

 occasionally inhabit the thorns and induce a most thorny development; strange 

 gall abortions or malformations of pods are caused by a fungus; another fungus 

 (Oecidium ornamentale) makes artistic floriated curls of the young twigs; and 

 Loranthus and mistletoe are frequent parasites. 



" Doom boom makes a strong, rough hedge if soaked seed is sown in line and 

 kept watered till germination has taken place. It is also useful for sowing in 

 beds of intermittent rivers with a view to arresting silt during future floods. 

 It suffers severely during soft snowstorms, the horizontal branches and foliage 

 breaking under a heavy weight of snow." (Sim, Forest Flora of Cape Colony.) 



39356. Cocos nucifera L. Phcenicacese. Coconut. 



From Panama. Secured by Mr. H. Pittier, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Received October 29, 1914. 



" The small Burica nut, of which I have not been able to obtain a whole speci- 

 men, but I send along the three shelled ones which I have been keeping here 

 till I could do better. * This is said to be very rich in oil and to be scarce also, 

 except around Punta Burica on the boundary between Costa Rica and Panama." 

 (Pittier.) 



39357 and 39358. 



From San Jose, Costa Rica.> Presented by the National Museum, San Jose. 

 Received October 24, 1914. 

 39357. Achradelpha mammosa (L.) O. F. Cook. Sapotaceae. 



(Lucuma mammosa Gaertn. f.) Sapote. 



See S. P. I. Nos. 35673 and 37813 for previous "introductions and 

 description. 



