APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1913. 



55 



35491 to 35569— Continued. 



35569. ''(242.) Apparently iJosorfa. From Chilian. " 

 Tubers. 



35570. Panicum miliaceum L. Proso. 

 From Russia. Presented by Mr. Alexander Kol, Russian Government Assistant 

 Agricultural Commissioner, St. Louis, Mo. Received June 9, 1913. 

 "Proso millet. Province of Simbirsk. From K. Svetlikoff. " 



35571 and 35572. Eriobotrya japonic a (Thunb.) Lindl. Loquat. 



From Xaples, Italy. Presented by Dr. Gustav Eisen, California Academy of 

 Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. Received July 2, 1913. 



35671. "Seeds from one of the best loquat trees, of the variety Apple, in 

 Boscotrecase . ' ' (Eisen . ) 



35572. " Loquat , variety Pear . ' ' (Eisen . ) 



35573 and 35574. Phoenix dactylifera L. Date. 



From Heyel, central Arabia. Presented by Mr. Emil Saur, American consul, 

 Bagdad, Turkey, vho procured them from the Sheik of Heyel. Received 

 June 9, 1913. 



35573. "Shakra.'' Seeds. 35574. SuTckari.'' Seeds. 

 From the interior of the Arabian peninsula, both varieties occurring only at Heyel, 



from which place the difficulties of transportation make the introduction of offshoots 

 practically impossible. 



35575. Melilotus alba Desr. White sweet clover. 



From Lawrence, Kans. Purchased from the Barteldes Seed Co. Received 

 July 24, 1913. 



35576. Vangueria infausta Biirch. 



From Berea, Durban, Natal. Presented by Dr. J. Medley Wood, director. Natal 

 Herbarium. Received July 7, 1913. 

 "A small tree, 6 to 7 feet high, with few and rather thick branches. All younger 

 parts densely tomentose, the upper surface of the leaves becoming scabrid with age. 

 Leaves 2 to 6 inches long, 2 to 4 inches wide, ovate, ovate elliptical, or suborbicular, 

 bluntly pointed, and having one-half inch petioles. Cymes axillary, forked, many 

 flowered, 3 inches across. Flowers green; calyx lobes short, triangular, tomentose, 

 caducous, and absent from the fruit. Corolla tube much longer, tomentose externally, 

 with spreading 5-fid limb. Stamens in the throat of the corolla, erect, oblong, on a 

 subulate filament. Ovary five celled, five o\'nled ; fruit about 1 inch diameter, globose, 

 glabrous when nearly ripe, usually some ovules abortive. Eastern and Transkeian 

 Conservancies, Natal, Transvaal, and Rhodesia; of no forestal importance, and usually 

 in open country. In 'Flora of Tropical Africa, ' it is stated, 'Burchell states that this 

 plant was regarded by the Bachapins as bewitched and unlucky, and therefore unfit 

 for firewood, and that the fruit is not edible. It is, however, edible in other parts 

 of South Africa, and is the wild medlar of the colonists; in Kafirland it is an excellent 

 fruit tree, and the fruit surpasses our medlar. ' That is not high praise, but even 

 that is more than I have found it to deserve, but I have seldom found the shrub, 

 and may have missed its best condition. In view of its being the host plant of a 

 fungus Hemileia woodii K. and C, closely allied to the coffee disease, and its prob- 

 ability of being subject to the latter also, coffee planters should keep a watch on 

 this shrub. " (Sim, Forest Flora of Cape Colony.) 



