12 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPOKTED. 



38687 to 38693— Continued. (Quoted notes by Mr. E. Brown.) 



38692 and 38693. 



From the estate of A. Vassal, " Klarofskoy," Nogais Steppe, Govern- 

 ment of Taurida, Russia. 



38692. Secale cereale L. Poaceae. Winter rye. 

 " No. 7. This is the best variety grown in the region." 



38693. AvENA SATiVA L. Poaceie, Oats. 

 " No. 8. This is the best variety grown in the region." 



38694. Annona cherimola Miller. Annonacese. Cherimoya. 

 From Mexico. Presented by Mr. Charles F. O'Brien, Los Angeles, Cal. 



Received at the Plant Introduction Field Station, Chico, Cal., May, 1914. 

 " Seeds from a very choice variety of Mexican cherimoya, grown in the 

 mountains east of Culiacan, Sinaloa." {O'Brien.) 



38695. Araucaria araucana (Mol.) Koch. Pinacese. Pehuen. 



From Barbacena, Minas Geraes, Brazil. Presented by Mr. Frank R. 

 Brainerd, Experiment Station. Received July 8, 1914. 



"An evergreen tree, 50 to 80 feet high, of pyramidal or rounded form, with 

 an erect cylindrical bole, 1^ to 2 J feet thick, all but the oldest parts prickly 

 with living leaves or the remains of dead ones. Branches produced in regular 

 tiers of five to seven. Leaves very uniform, ovate, with a slender spine-tipped 

 point, from 1 to 2 inches long, one-half to 1 inch wide; hard, rigid, and 

 leathery ; dark glossy green except at the paler growing tips of the branches, 

 and with numerous stomatic lines on both surfaces. The leaves are arranged 

 spirally on the branch, overlapping at the broad, stalkless base, and are very 

 densely packed (about 24 to 1 inch of stem) ; they remain alive for 10 to 15 

 years, and then persist for an indefinite time dead. Male and female flower? 

 are usually borne on separate trees, but not invariably ; the former are pro- 

 duced on egg-shaped or cylindrical catkins 3 to 5 inches long, the scales 

 lanceolate, densely packed, with the slender points reflexed, the pollen being 

 shed in early July. The female cones take two seasons to develop, appearing 

 in the spring of one year and shedding their seeds in August or September of 

 the next ; they are globose, and usually 5 to 7 inches thick. Seeds conical, 1* 

 inches long, three-fourths inch wide. 



" Native of Chile ; originally discovered about 1780, and introduced to 

 England by Archibald Menzies in 179.5. Menzies had, two or three years 

 previously, when attached to Vancouver's voyage of survey, pocketed some nuts 

 put on for dessert whilst he and the ship's officers w^ere dining with the Vice- 

 roy of Chile. He sowed these nuts on board ship, and ultimately landed five 

 plants, which proved to be the Araucaria, alive in England. One of the five 

 existed at Kew until 1892. The Chile pine, whilst hardy in most parts of 

 the British Isles, attains its finest development in the softer, moister counties, 

 and in good free soil. It should always be raised from seeds, fertile ones of 

 which are now regularly produced in several gardens. At Castle Kennedy I 

 have seen seedling plants springing up naturally near the trees from which 

 seeds had fallen. Araucaria imbricata is of peculiar interest as the only tree 

 from the south of the Equator that attains to timber-producing size in the 

 average climate of the British Isles. It becomes over 100 feet high and 7 

 feet in diameter of trunk in Chile, deriving its name from the Arauco Province 

 (inhabited by the Araucanos Indians), where it was first found. A species is 



