﻿42 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



41133. Belou marmelos (L.) Lyons. Rutacese. Bael fruit. 



(Aegle marmelos Correa.) 

 From Gujranwala, India. Presented by Rev. H. S. Nesbitt, manager, Boys' 

 Industrial Home. Fruits received September 11, 1915. 

 " Five large specimens which are more rare here and four little scrub speci- 

 mens which are the wild kind that grow in the jungles. They are sought for 

 by camel owners, who ascribe some virtue to them and periodically feed them 

 to their camels. They are so hard that they require to be broken under a 

 hammer or a stone." (Nesbitt.) 



41134. Pimenta officinalis Lindley. Myrtacese. Allspice. 



From Kingston, Jamaica. Presented by Mr. W. Harris, superintendent, 

 Hope Gardens. Received September 9, 1915. 

 "A small tree with smooth, white bark, 25 to 30 feet high, native of the West 

 Indies and Central America. The dried unripe berries, which are the size of 

 small peas, are the allspice or pimento of commerce. The name ' allspice ' is 

 due to a supposed resemblance of the spice to a combination of the odour 

 and flavor of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The tree was introduced into 

 Ceylon over a century ago and established at Peradeniya, where it flowers 

 in dry weather and occasionally sets a few fruits, but outside the Botanic 

 Gardens it is rarely met with in this country. It is considered to yield best 

 in a hot and rather dry climate, and prefers a loose loamy or alluvial well- 

 drained soil. In Jamaica the berries are picked by hand while green but just 

 ripe, and are then dried in the sun, the latter process taking six to ten days. 

 The fruits are known to be sufficiently dry when the seeds rattle on shaking 

 and are a dark colour. A crop can not be expected within six or seven years 

 from the time of planting, and when in full bearing a tree will yield a hundred- 

 weight of the dried spice. Jamaica is the only country that exports this spice, 

 which is sold at present in England at about 2d. to 3d. per pound." {Macmil- 

 lan, Handbook of Tropical Gardening and Planting.) 



41135 to 41141. 



From San Jose, Costa Rica. Presented by Mr. J. E. Van der Laat, direc- 

 tor, Department of Agriculture, through Mr. Carlos Werckle. Received 

 September 13, 1915. Quoted notes by Mr. Werckle. 



41135 to 41140. Chayota edulis Jacq. Cucurbitacese. Chayote. 



" We have here a few exceptionally good varieties of the chayote, but, 

 very strange, they are seldom found in the market; the variety called 

 chayota zapayo (zapayo means squash), which is simply enormous, I 

 have never seen elsewhere than in Tarras, a little village near Cartago. 

 There is a form of the cocora, quite small, but very prolific, which has 

 nothing of the fibrous felt around the seed" (endocarp). The dark-green 

 varieties produce more tubers than the light-colored ones ; in the cold 

 highlands (where the chayote does best) they take from a single plant 

 as much as 100 pounds of roots every year. The plant grows and pro- 

 duces fruit also in the torrid lowlands, but it produces nearly no tubers. 

 We have here some round fruits (nearly spherical)." 



41135. Small white. 41138. Large white. 



41136. Spiny white. 41139. Large dark green. 



41137. Large light green. 41140. Large light green. 



