2 



SEEDS A]S1) PLANTS IMPOKTED. 



The appreciation which the sp^ing-flo^Yering trees inspire nowa- 

 days should make Mr. Popenoe's flor de mico tree, Phyllocarpiis sep- 

 fentjnonalh (No. 51409), which flowers in January and February 

 with a mass of crimson-scarlet blooms, a popular street or park tree 

 in Florida. His wild Bogota* strawberry, Frag aria vesca (No. 

 51564), may be valuable for breeding purposes; his chocho, Lupirms 

 cnickshajnJcsii (No. 515GG), a 6-foot treelike lupine Avith varicolored 

 flowers, is well worth groAving, he believes. His two rare species of 

 Tacsonia, T. manieata (No. 51567) and T. pimiatistipula (No. 

 51568), will add new material for the breeding of this neglected 

 group of fruting vines; and the wild blackberry, Rubus hogotensis 

 (No. 51569), from the sabana of Bogota, may be useful for breed- 

 ing purposes. 



Descriptions of the valuable plants collected by Dr. H. L. Shantz, 

 Agricultural Explorer of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture attached to the Smithsonian expedition, in his explorations in 

 East Africa, continue to appear. Among them are many valuable 

 things, including the doum palm, Hyphaene thehaica (No. 51440), dis- 

 tinguislied as the only branching palm known. This species thrives 

 in southern Florida and, since it is a beautiful landscape species, de- 

 serves to be widely planted there. A ]\xnv^&r^Junij)erus procera (No. 

 51442), from the escarpment above the Rift Yalley; a large, coarse 



§rass, Panwiim quadrifaHum (No. 51446) , from the banks of the Uaso 

 fyiro River: the beautiful liano (No. 51461). with clusters of deep 

 reddish colored fruit, from the high forest region near Meru ; a desert 

 grass, Cenclirus sp. (No. 51488), with burlike seed, possibly valuable 

 for our^desert country; a Cotoneaster, C. simonsi (No. 51493), used 

 for hedges in Nairobi; a large wild olive, Olea chrysophyllsi (No. 

 51519), from the highlands; a wild blackberry, ^'w^^i^,^ sp. (No. 51535), 

 of good flavor; a wild red raspberry, Rubus sp. (No. 51536), the Tel- 

 faria, T. pedata (No. 51542), a remarkable cucurbit bearing immense 

 fruits; which are filled with large edible seeds the size of a large 

 almond; a new clover, TrifoUum sp. (No. 51543), from Kenia Prov- 

 ince: and Trifoliiiw temhense (No. 51545) from the uplands of the 

 same province, which thrives in very wet soil, are among the host of 

 interesting things found by him. The extensive collections made 

 during the last part of his African trip and including his stay in 

 Uganda and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan are comprised in his descrip- 

 tions for Nos. 51898 to 52267. His collection of sorghums, beans, 

 forage grasses, millets, cucumbers, cotton, etc., includes wild-growing 

 forms as well as those cultivated by the agricultural tribes through 

 whose land he traveled and can not fail to be of real value to the 

 many research workers who are studying these important staple 

 crops and are hunting for new characters to incorporate into our 

 own highly developed varieties. 



Doctor Shantz traveled more than 9,000 miles through the eastern 

 portion of Africa from Cape Colony through to Egypt, and his 

 more than 1,500 collections made through this vast territory and 

 noted in this and the four preceding inventories include many intro- 

 ductions of great potential value for American agriculture. A map 

 (Fig. 1) has been prepared, showing the region covered by his ex- 

 plorations. 



