NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



627 



are described in detail. They resemble very much those of Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana. The seeds furnish the most important character of its 

 new genus. In Cwpressus the two lateral wings of the seed are very 

 narrow and equal, and surround nearly the whole of the seed, whereas 

 in Fokienia the wings are lateral and very unequal, and appear to be 

 derived from the scale of the cone. 



The tree is said to be rare, and occurs in the province of Fokien 

 in the Tung-fu district at a few hundred feet above sea-level on the 

 northern slope of one valley about twenty miles from the sea. It is 

 suggested that the new Conifer ought to succeed in the south-western 

 counties of England and in parts of Ireland and Wales where the 

 climate is mild. — A. S. H. 



Fokienia Hodgrinsii, Structure of the Wood. By E. E. 



Burden (Gard. Chron. xlix. p. 84; Feb. 11, 1911; 3 figs.).— A short 

 description is given of the structure of the wood in the new genus of 

 Coniferae described by A. Henry and H. H. Thomas in the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle of February 4, 1911. The wood appears to present 

 a greater resemblance on the whole to that of Cupressus than to that 

 of Lihocedrus. The resin cells are, however, much more numerous in 

 Fokienia than in any other species of Cupressus examined by the 

 writer. — A. S. H. 



Fruit and Nut Orchards of China, Agrricultural Explora- 

 tions in the. By F. N. Meyer (U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Bur. PL Ind., 

 Bull. 204; March 1911; 6 plates, 15 figs.).— The Chinese Empire is 

 very rich in fruits and nuts, and it is possible some of them are worth 

 introducing into other lands, where the domestic and soil conditions 

 are similar, either for direct cultivation or for hybridization. The 

 Chinese ar6 great lovers of fruits, growing them whenever there is a 

 chance to do so. They understand the arts of grafting, budding, and 

 layering to preserve old varieties, but they are much less successful in 

 originating new ones. They never prune their fruit trees, with the 

 exception of the grape, but the soil of all orchards is carefully cultivated, 

 : except in those of the jujube. Nothing is known of spraying and little 

 of insecticides, and it is apparently only the abundance of parasites 

 ; which prey upon scale and other insects which makes fruit-growing 

 [| practicable with any degree of success. The peculiarity of the Chinese 

 f taste is that, as a rule, they do not care for soft fruits — preferring 

 unripe apricots and pears, for instance, to those which are ripe. 



Persimmons (varieties of Diospyros Kaki) are perhaps the most im- 

 portant fruits of Northern China. In one small village in Chihli the 

 author was assured in 1908 that the crop of the previous autumn had 

 brought in about $10,000 Mexican.' Some of the less juicy varieties 

 are extensively used for conversion into dried fruits, which resemble 

 figs in appearance. All the persimmons in Northern China are ring- 

 budded or grafted upon the wild D. Lotus, a species that bears small 

 black fruits full of seeds. The writer only once found a few specimens 



