UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY 
WASHINGTON 
FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION 
2 • 
of the future forest trees of this country under which as Tagore 
would say ”children will play". 
You would have been shocked yester¬ 
day to see one of those forest fires which burns up all of the 
undergrowth in the pine lands of this part of Florida. It swept 
the ground clean on Chapman Field which we are planning to take 
over as a new and much larger station for the growing of trees 
in this subtropical region and since it was entirely unnecessary 
it hurt terribly. But never mind we will build a garden out 
of it yet with such plants as will grow well here. I know it z 
can be done because I have seen trees grow from potted plants 
here in my short lifetime and what has been done years ago can 
be done again. These forest fires wipe out the undergroeth 
about every year anyway and make the landscapes look terrible. 
When we get the place we will stop them and the vegetation will 
all come back® 
Whew but it is dry here. There has 
not been any rain to speak of since the first of January and 
even though the rock below the surface of the soil is always 
moist the trees are suffering terribly especially those which 
cannot stand the too high concentration of lime in the soil* 
This question of the adaptation cf 
plants to this limestone soil is so important that whenever 35 
you find anything which you think would grow here never fo.rg4 
to find out what its reaction to a limestone soil will fee* I 
dont mean that you should not get it unless it is a lime lovhg 
plant for we have many plants here which get along although tie y 
prefer an acid soil* I simply mean that lime loving plants 
other things being equal will do best here. 
Collins will be very much interested 
and so are we all in your discovery of that Aboriginal tripe 
01 pre Chinese, the MIAOS. How is it possible that- they 
got hold of Maize and where did they get it? You know ^ollins 
has always had a sneaking suspicion that Maize was grown in 
Asia before the discovery of America by Columbus. Who knows but 
these Miaos were the ones to bring itbinto Asia from America. 
I hope that you got a full assort¬ 
ment of the varieties of maize which they grow so that Collins 
can throw dome light on this interesting discovery through his 
experience with the waxy endosperm maize which we got from 
China a good many years ago* I think you had a talk with him 
about this matter didnt you? 
Regarding Taraktogenes you will be 
glad to hear the report that the few trees which I took to 
Panama last August have done well according to the report of 
Col. Fisher of the Ancon Hospital who stopped off here on his 
way up from Panama and purchased a small Avocado grove. 
The -^ 11 etin has not yet appeared 
though Power tells me he h as read the gaxley proof on" It 
