APEIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1922. 3 



As a result of Mr. Popenoe's exploring work in Ecuador there have 

 come in the seeds of two rather unusual varieties of potato from an 

 altitude of 11,000 feet in the Ecuadorian Andes, in Carchi Province 

 (Nos, 55557 and 55558). 



From the new Republic of Czechoslovakia a collection of apple 

 varieties (Nos. 55212 to 55232^ has been received through the kind- 

 ness of Josef Mazanek, but whether or not any of them will prove 

 better than our commercial sorts will have to be determined. They 

 are some of the noted sorts of that region. 



The introduction of Microcitrus inodora from the Bellenden Ker 

 Range of mountains of northern Queensland is of particular interest, 

 inasmuch as this species, according to Doctor Swingle, the citrus 

 specialist of the Bureau of Plant Industry, is the only one of the whole 

 genus which bears fruit in its wild state of sufficiently good quality 

 to make it of promise for cultivation without any improvement. 

 We are especially indebted to C. T. White for the Russell River lime 

 (No. 55447), as it is called in Queensland. 



The matasano of Honduras, Casirmroa tetrameria (No. 55445), 

 while not so hardy as its relative the white sapote, C. edulis, bears 

 much larger fruit, and since it has shown its ability to grow well 

 and fruit in southern Florida its wide dissemination there is consid- 

 ered a matter of importance. 



In the category of secondary fruits of value to the housewife 

 for preserves and for stewing appears to be the Indian jujube 

 (Ziziphus mauritiana, No. 55485), bushes of which have borne heav- 

 ily at Miami, Fla. Since in India there are cultivated forms of this 

 fruit, which might be called a kind of southern crab apple, that seem 

 to be superior, it has seemed important to get them. 



Doctor Shantz during his explorations in South Africa was so im- 

 pressed by the possibilities of the narras {Acanthosicyos horrida, No. 

 55486), a species of cucurbit which the Hottentots almost live upon 

 during certain months of the year, that a new importation of the 

 seeds has been made. This cucurbit, which forms spiny thickets in 

 the Kalahari Desert, bears melonlike fruits, the seeds and flesh of 

 which are keenly relished by the natives. If it can be established in 

 our own southwestern deserts it may prove a very valuable acquisi- 

 tion. 



The gum arabic of commerce constitutes a specialized industry in 

 Arabia and the east coast of Africa, and although it is doubtful 

 whether labor conditions would make it possible to develop the cul- 

 ture of the gum-yielding species of Acacias in our own deserts, 

 their introduction for the trial seems worth making. Through 

 the kindness of Mr. Massey, Government botanist of the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan, and of the director of the Wellcome Tropical 

 Research Laboratories in Khartum, a collection of the best species 

 has been made (Nos. 55419 to 55423). 



The successful introduction by Mr. Rock of the true chaulmoogra- 

 oil-producing species of tree has led to a search for all those other 

 representatives of the Flacourtiacese from the seeds of which a 

 similar oil is obtainable, with the result that from Sierra Leone we 

 have secured Oncoba eohinata (No. 55465), which Dr. F. B. Power 

 assures us has been shown to bear seeds from the oily content of which 

 the true chaulmoogric acid has been isolated. As this is a shrub 



