﻿38 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



41485 to 41488— Continued. 



41488. Annona purpurea Moc. and Sesse. Annonaceae. Soncoya. 



" This fruit has" only two defects — the seeds are too large and are 

 * cling.' It is recommended for crossing with Annona squamosa and 

 Annona cherimola." 



41489. Halesia Carolina monticola render. Styracacese. 



Mountain silverbell. 



Seeds from Jamaica Plain, Mass. Presented by Prof. C. S. Sargent, 

 Arnold Arboretum. Received November 13, 1915. 

 " The silver-bell tree of the Southern States, Halesia tetraptera, has long 

 been cultivated in northern gardens. It is usually shrubby in habit with 

 several stout, wide-spreading stems, and here at the North rarely grows more 

 than 15 to 20 feet high. It is an inhabitant of the Southern States from West 

 Virginia and southern Illinois to northern Florida and eastern Texas. It 

 grows at low altitudes and does not appear to ascend to the slopes of the high 

 Appalachian Mountains, although the Halesia of those mountain forests was 

 long considered identical with the lowland tree. The Halesia of the high 

 slopes, however, is a tree often 80 to 90 feet high, with a trunk 3 feet in 

 diameter, sometimes free of branches for a distance of 60 feet from the 

 ground. It is apparently only in recent years that this mountain tree has 

 been introduced into cultivation by the Biltmore Nursery. From Biltmore it 

 was sent to the parks of Rochester, N. Y., and from Rochester it came to the 

 Arboretum with a description of its peculiar habit, large flowers, and fruit. 

 The mountain tree, which has lately been distinguished here as var. monticola, 

 grows as a tree from the time the seed germinates, and the seedlings show no 

 variation of habit. Young trees are clean stemmed with short branches which 

 form a narrow pyramidal head. The leaves are of rather different shape and 

 less hairy than those of the lowland tree ; the flowers are fully a third larger 

 and the fruit is nearly twice as large. Trees less than 10 feet produce flowers 

 and fruit in abundance. There is now every reason to believe that the moun- 

 tain Halesia will prove one of the handsomest flowering- trees of large size 

 which it is possible to cultivate in this climate. Its tall trunk and narrow 

 head suggest that it may prove a good street and roadside tree." (Arnold 

 Arboretum, Bulletin. of Popular Information.) 



41490. Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott. Araceae. 



Tubers from Joinville, Brazil. Presented by Mr. Jean Knatz. Received 



October 25, 1915. 



" Cara (Kara). Cara is much used to mix with flour after being baked, in 



order to make the bread used by the farmers, into which enter sweet potatoes, 



cassava, flour and 'taya," especially now that wheat flour is so expensive. I 



think the larger sort of ' cara ' is the taro of the South Sea Islands." (Knatz.) 



41491 and 41492. 



Seeds from Chungking, China. Presented by Mr. E. Widler. Received 

 November 18, 1915. Quoted notes by Mr. Widler. 



41491. Cucurbita pepo L. Cucurbitacese. Nan kua. 



" Nan kua. A creeping plant 10 to 15 feet long ; grows best at a tem- 

 perature of 70° to 110° F. It takes about three months to mature; 

 bears yellow flowers and fruits in the autumn. The fruit is 5 feet in 

 circumference and weighs about 40 catties. It is used only as a vegetable 



