JANUARY 1 TO MARCH 31, 1922. 



3 



America, Africa, and the Orient. It deserves, in Mr. Popenoe's 

 opinion, to rank with the date as a food-producing pabn. 



A single bush of the grumichama of Brazil has proved hardy 

 in southern Florida, withstanding the freeze of 1917, and it has 

 bloomed profusely there. Its excellent cherrylike fruits and its 

 dark-green foliage and white flowers will probably make it very 

 popular wherever it can be grown. It is interesting to get seeds 

 of it {Eugenia dombeyi^ No. 54777) and a favorable opinion regard- 

 ing it from Mr. Regnard, of Mauritius. 



Davidsonia pruriens (No. 54785), from Queensland, with acid, 

 plumlike purple fruits the size of a goose egg, used by the settlers 

 for jams and jellies, may prove to be a useful fruit tree in southern 

 Florida and California. 



The walnuts {Juglans regia^ Nos. 54788 to 54790) from the lower 

 Himalayas in the Northwest Provinces of India, according to 

 Howard Spence who sends them, have special vigor and hardiness 

 and on account of the ease with which they can be transplanted are 

 believed valuable as a stock. 



Through Henry S. Wellcome we received from Kordofan seeds 

 of the hashab {Acacia verek^ No. 54799), the acacia which furnishes 

 the finest quality of gum arabic. 



A variety of sugar cane {Saccharum officinarum^ No. 54902) 

 which originated in the Shahjahanpur Sugar-Experiment Station 

 of British India and has shown a remarkable resistance to frost in 

 Queensland may prove of unusual value to sugar-cane growers in 

 Florida and Louisiana. 



A wild apple {Mains doumeri^ No. 54903), sent by Mr. Mieville 

 from the mountains of French Indo China, which, according to 

 Chevalier, was probably cultivated there in ancient times and is 

 now preserved as one of the sacred trees around Laos pagodas, 

 can hardly fail to attract the attention of apple breeders and those 

 who are hunting for the best stock on which to grow our cultivated 

 varieties. 



Three strains of the ma-yuen, or adlay {Coix lacryma-johi mor 

 yuen^ Nos. 54906 to 54908), a soft-shelled variety of Job's tears, 

 which, according to Wester, has de<;ided advantage over upland 

 rice for tropical agriculture, being more drought resistant, a much 

 heavier yielder, and requiring not over half the cost of cultivation, 

 deserve an extensive trial throughout the Tropics. Demonstrations 

 have shown that the adlay can be used in most of the ways in which 

 we use corn. 



E. W. Davy sends us from the dense humid forests of tropical 

 Africa Myrianthus arhoreus (No. 54910), which bears edible fruits 

 4 inches in diameter that are much appreciated by the natives. It 

 should be tried in those regions in the Tropics inhabited by people 

 with discriminating palates and might prove to be a valuable fruit. 



A collection of early-ripening, stiff-stemmed varieties of oats and 

 barley (Nos. 54911 to 54917), sent by Haakon Foss, should prove 

 useful in the regions of the United States having high altitudes. ^ 



Dr. E. O. Fenzi has sent from the northern slope of the Cyrenaican 

 plateau of Tripoli seeds of the wild fomis of Cupressus semper- 

 virens and Juniperus phoenicea (Nos. 54918 and 54919) which 



