26 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



the Forest Department have recorded the measures taken to foster and extend 

 production. The ^ass has thus been systematically placed before the public. 

 It has, in consequence, become an assured paper material, restricted alone by 

 the insufliciency of the supply. The attempt has accordingly been made to 

 cultivate the plant in localities more accessible to the paper mills, thereby 

 lowering the ruinously heavy freight charges. More or less successful experi- 

 ments of this kind have been conducted in Poona, Mysore, Hyderabad Deccan, 

 and in Hyderabad Sind. Systematic cultivation has also been undertaken in 

 Manbhum, Birbhura, and Murshidabad. In Poona it has been announced that 

 the yield is 24 cwt. of dry grass per acre. It was, however, ascertained that 

 when grown on soils of a better class than in its wild habitat or under warmer 

 and moister conditions, it tends to flower too profusely, and this lowers its 

 value as a paper material. 



" In Murshidabad, according to Mr. B. C. Bose, assistant director of agri- 

 culture, Bengal, it is now planted in clumps along the borders of mulberry 

 fields. Two cuttings are taken in the year, one in September and the other in 

 March. With irrigation, three or four crops can be had. This is, at any rate, 

 the experience in Poona. The March crop is cut after the grass has flowered 

 and yields very inferior fiber. No steps are taken to remove the flower stalks, 

 no doubt owing to the cost of picking them out. The September crop does not 

 flower and yields the best fiber. The people look upon the formation of the 

 flower stalks as a necessary evil which they have no means of checking." 

 ( Watt, Commercial Products of India. ) 



Distrihution. — The warmer parts of India, ascending to 7,000 feet in the 

 Himalayas and eastward to China and the Philippines. 



37015 and 37016. Cudrania javanensis Trecul. 



From Taihoku, Formosa, Japan. Presented by the Bureau of Productive 

 Industry. Received January 23, 1914. 



37015. Five male plants. 37016. Five female plants. 



" The fruit of Cudrania javanensis is considered edible in Japan, but 

 not eaten with a relish." 



37017 to 37028. 



From Bahia, Brazil. Collected by Messrs. P. H. Dorsett, A. D. Shamel, 

 and Wilson Popenoe, of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Received January 

 22, 1914. 



Quoted notes, except as indicated, by Messrs, Dorsett, Shamel, and Popenoe. 

 37017. Eugenia luschnathiana Berg. Pitomba. 



"(No. 45a. December 20, 1913.) A rare and interesting myrtaceous 

 fruit seen in two gardens at Cabulla, near Bahia, and called by the 

 natives pitomba. Berg (in Martins, Flora Brasiliensis) gives Bahia as 

 its habitat, but adds that there are other species wiiich produce edible 

 fruits as well, so this may not necessarily be the above species. Seeds 

 from the gardens of Col. Elvidio Esteres Assis and Dr. Fortunato da 

 Silva, Bahia. The tree is 20 to 30 feet in height, compact, densely foli- 

 ated, and very handsome in appearance. The individual leaves are ellip- 

 tical lanceolate, acuminate, about 31 inches in length, thick and leathery, 

 glossy, deep green above, light green beneath. Veins scarcely discernible on 

 the upper surface. The fruits which are produced on the small branches, 

 are broadly obovate in form, about 1 inch in length and seven-eighths 

 of an inch in breadth on an average. The stem is 1 inch or more in 



