JANUARY 1 TO MARCH 31, 1921. 



45 



52574 to 52580— Continued. 



52580. Pkunus cerasifera mykobalana (L.) C. Schiieid. Amygdalacese. 



Plum. 



"(No. 535a. Ambato, Ecuador.) Mirabel. This plum was brought 

 from Europe in the early colonial days and is quite successful under 

 the conditions which obtain in the region of Ambato (8,500 feet), the 

 trees growing to large size and producing their popular fruits in great 

 abundance. Propagation is by suckers, less commonly by seed, and occa- 

 sionally by cuttings. The species is often used as a stock plant on which 

 to graft the sc-called Reina Claudia plum (properly Chabot or Bailey). 

 The fruits ripen earlier than those of other plums now cultivated at 

 Ambato, the season being from December to January ; they are round to 

 broadly oval in form, up to an inch long, bright red when fully ripe, with 

 soft juicy flesh of pleasant flavor, much inferior in quality, however, to 

 that of good northern varieties such as the Bailey and WicJcson Perfec- 

 tion, both of which are now grown commercially at Ambato. For trial 

 in the United States as a stock plant." 



52581 to 52583. 



From Beira, Mozambique. Seeds presented by Thomas Honey, acting Di- 

 rector of Agriculture, Governo do Territorio da Companhia de Mozam- 

 bique. Received March 3, 1921. Quoted notes by Mr. Honey. 

 52581 and 52582. ANAC.^KDruM occidentale L. Anacardiaceae. 



Cashew. 



52581. " Large red-fruited variety." 



52582. " Large yellow-fruited variety." 

 52583. Landolphia kibkii Dyer. Apocynaceae. 



" Indigenous rubber vine." 



A scandent shrub native to the Nile Land and Mozambique, with 

 thinly coriaceous leaves, very variable in size and shape on the same 

 branch, lanceolate to oblong, 1 to 4 inches long. The whitish flowers, 

 li inches long, are in many-flowered corymbs or in somewhat loose 

 panicles, ovoid or much elongated, with spreading branches often passing 

 into tendrils. The ovoid-globose fruits are 1 to 3 inches in diameter. 

 This is one of the most important rubber plants of East Africa. 

 (Adapted from Thiselton-Dyer, Flora of Tropical Africa, vol. 4, sec. 1, 

 p. 55.) 



For previous introduction, see S. P. I. No. 5023. 



52584 and 52585. Datura innoxia Mill. Solanaceae. 



From Teneriffe, Canary Islands. Seeds presented by Frank Anderson 

 Henry, American consul. Received March 3, 1921. 

 " This species, indigenous in Mexico and tropical America, was introduced 

 into the Canary Islands, southern Europe, and India at a very early day. It 

 has been confused by many writers with the Old World Datura metel, but is 

 easily distinguished from that species by the 10-angled limb of its corolla and 

 the soft pubescence of its foliage and young branches. It was figured by Sims, 

 in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, pi. 1440, in 1812, under the incorrect name D. 

 metel and published by him in De Candolle's Prodromus. This species is identi- 

 cal with the nacazcul, or do\\Tiy toloatzin of the Aztecs, who used it as a 



23564—23 4 



