JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1922. 3 



It seems strange that a magnificent tree in the mountain gorges 

 of the great African continent should be in danger of becoming ex- 

 tinct, but such is the case. In fact, so fast are some of the wonderful 

 forest trees of the globe disappearing that our grandchildren, even 

 when they circle the world through the air, will not have the supreme 

 pleasure which the Africanders had, as, traveling at a snail's pace 

 with ox teams across the veldt, they stood in the presence of the leafy 

 giants of the Milanji cypress, whose crowns rose 140 feet above the 

 earth. From Southern Rhodesia W. L. Thompson, of the American 

 Board Mission, has sent the department seed of this wonderful tree 

 (Gallitris whytei; No. 55602) which survives now only in the gorges 

 of that region not visited by forest fires, and it is hoped that these 

 may grow and establish themselves in other regions. 



G. H. Cave, the curator of the Lloyd Botanic Gardens at Darjiling, 

 to whom in the past the department has been indebted for many 

 courtesies, has sent a remarkable collection of seeds of Himalayan 

 ornamental and economic trees and shrubs (Nos. 55669 to 55706). It 

 includes one of the hill bamboos (Cephalostachyum capitatum; No. 

 55676) ; a yellow-flowered clematis (0. grewiaeflora; No. 55677) ; a 

 species of that small genus to which belongs the Japanese loquat 

 (Eriobotrya hookeriana; No. 55679) with egg-shaped yellow fruits 

 three-fourths of an inch long, possibly useful for breeders or as a 

 stock; Ilex insignis (No. 55682) , which has proved hardy in Ireland: 

 a bright-flowered Indigofera (No. 55683) ; the famous pink-flowered 

 Himalayan magnolia {Magnolia compbellii; No. 55688) ; three species 

 of Michelia (Nos. 55689 to 55691), trees with magnolialike flowers 

 and foliage, one of them the principal timber tree of the Darjiling 

 Hills; the Himalayan spruce (Picea smithiana; No. 55694) ; and a 

 Himalayan cherry (Prunus nap aulensis ; No. 55696) from an altitude 

 of 10,000 feet. 



Guarana is a paste that is much used by the natives of the Amazon 

 Valley to make a beverage which contains caffein and, like cacao and 

 coffee, is a stimulant. It is prepared from the grapelike fruits of a 

 climbing shrub {Paullinia cupana; No. 55738) , the culture of which 

 in Brazil has been a lucrative industry. Seeds of this shrub have been 

 presented by Doctor da Costa, of Rio de Janeiro. 



The so-called kiffy of Sierra Leone is the roasted seed of a cucum- 

 berlike plant (Cucum,eropsis mannii; No. 55792) which is used as a 

 condiment by the natives in the preparation of their remarkable dish 

 known as dumboy. 



Doctor Shirai, of Komaba, Japan, has presented plants of two dis- 

 tinct varieties of Elaeagnus nrnltifiora (Nos. 55771 and 55772), the 

 " Ogumi " and the " Togumi." As this species grows well on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, these two large-fruited varieties will be wanted by 

 those who have the ordinary small-fruited form. 



Doctor Shantz has imported, in order to test again, the narras 

 (Acanthosicyos horrida; No. 55763), a melonlike fruit which the 

 Hottentots grow on the sand dunes of the Kalahari Desert and upon 

 which they live for months. 



The wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) has been determined to 

 be botanically identical with the capulin of Central America and 

 northwestern South America; but, whereas Americans have done 

 nothing to improve this native cherry, our southern neighbors have 



