12 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



36273 to 36278— Continued. 



36276. "Seeds of a large, globular papaya, with firm, sweet flesh. One 

 of the best tasting papayas and of very good keeping and shipping quali- 

 ties." (Birch.) 



36277. "Seeds from our Watergate papaya, of very delicate, rich flavor. 

 The first ripe fruit was picked within 12 months of the setting out of the 

 seedling tree, and within 18 months from that time we had over 200 



. fruits from it." (Birch.) 



36278. "Seeds of a pear-shaped fruit weighing over 4 pounds each, 

 about 12 inches long and 6 inches in diameter and of fine rich flavor. 

 They would be worth growing in Florida or California. I have heard 

 that colonists in Minas Geraes got them from Rio Grande do Sul." 

 (Birch.) 



36279. Peumus boldus Molina. Boldo. 



From southern Chile. Collected by Mr. W. F. Wight, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry. Received May 7, 1913. 



"(No. 47.) A slu-ub or small tree belonging to the Monimiaceae, with dark-green, 

 very aromatic foliage and abundant white, fragrant flowers. The fruit, although sweet 

 and agreeable, has little flesh. It is considerably prized in southern Chile." ( Wight.) 



' ' The boldo has opposite short-stalked ovate leaves, which are entire and rough on the 

 surface. The flowers are in little axillary racemes, the males and females on different 

 plants. The center of the male flower is occupied by a great many stamens and that 

 of the female by from two to nine ovaries, which when ripe are succulent drupes, about 

 the size of haws and very aromatic, as are all the parts of the plant. The bark is 

 serviceable to tanners, and the wood is preferred before any other in the country for 

 making charcoal, while the fruits are eaten." (A. A. Black, in Lindley^s Treasury of 

 Botany.) 



36280 and 36281. Cakica papaya L. Papaya. 

 From Colombo, Ceylon. Presented by Mr. Charles K. Moser, American consul. 

 Received October 7, 1913. 



Notes, through Mr. Moser, from an interview with Mr. H. F. Macmillan, curator, 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon. 



"Iklr. Macmillan said that Carica papaya was introduced into Ceylon from the West 

 Indies before 1678. Carica candamarcensis was a native of Ecuador and was intro- 

 duced into Ceylon about 1880. It is being grown with some difficulty in the Hakgala 

 Gardens, near Newara Eliya, and through the operation of birds it has been scattered 

 among remote, inaccessible places through the mountains, where it is growing wild. 

 It will not grow lower than 3,000 feet, and while its fruits are edible when stewed, 

 little use is made of them. The papaya in general cultivation in Ceylon is the ordi- 

 nary West Indian variety without any changes in form or nature. There is no Sing- 

 halese variety or any other papaya indigenous to Ceylon. So far as he knows Carica 

 papaya and Carica candamarcensis have never been crossed. There is no 'Ceylon 

 hybrid papaya' and no hybrid papaya of any sort. The distinctions noted by Dr. 

 Haybertsz (that the 'Ceylon hybrid papaya' is not a cross between Carica canda- 

 marcensis, or mountain pawpaw, and Carica papaya, but a product of natural cross- 

 fertilization between the Carica papaya introduced into the island from the West 

 Indies about 1678 and a variety of the same species which he thinks indigenous to 

 Ceylon and which he calls Sinhala papaya) are imaginary. 



"If the flavor and papain of the papaya produced in Ceylon are superior to those 

 produced in the West Indies or elsewhere, it is probably due to climatic or soil con- 



