96 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. II, No. 2 
soil, mostly shallow and often stony, and seem to have a tendency to form small scrubs 
covering an acre or so, but in such cases do not bear much fruit. The trees that are 
growing in small clumps with a fair amount of room between them fruit very heavily 
and every season. I don’t think they bear till at least 5 years old. The trees when 
mature average about 10 or 12 feet in height and the stem about 6 in. in diameter 
and about 6 feet from the ground to the limbs. The young trees are very thorny and 
have very few leaves, but the grown trees are nice and bushy with scarcely any 
thorns. At certain times of the year they exude a gum of which some people are very 
fond. It has a slightly tart taste. Although all the grown trees appear of the same 
kind to me, odd ones have a fruit much larger and the shape of a Lisbon lemon, the 
fruit of the majority, however, is the shape of the Mandarin. * * * I am sending 
a bottle of lime jam. We make it every year. * * * Some folk also make pickles 
of them, and the children use a lot of them for drinks. 
(The jam is of the bitter marmalade character and in my opinion a very pleasant 
novelty. W. M. C[ame].) 
Doubtless if this tree were cultivated, fertilized, and irrigated in 
accordance with the best methods of modern citriculture, fruits of a 
larger size and of better flavor could be obtained. 
It is to be hoped that the botanists and horticulturists of Australia will 
give more attention to this remarkable species, one of the most interest¬ 
ing of their citrous fruits. This should result in bringing to light unusu¬ 
ally hardy, drouth-resistant, large-fruited or otherwise interesting forms. 
Even in its present form the Australian desert kumquat is well worthy 
of culture in regions slightly too dry or too cold to permit ordinary 
citrous fruits to succeed. 
INTRODUCTION OF EREMOCITRUS GLAUCA IN THE UNITED STATES 
Through the cooperation of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Intro¬ 
duction, seeds of Eremocitrus glauca were secured from Queensland, 
Australia, in April, 1911. On germination the seedlings showed hypo- 
geous cotyledons, succeeded by very slender cataphylls. 1 Very soon long, 
slender spines were produced near the axil of each leaf. In spite of every 
effort to force these young seedlings into a vigorous growth, it has proved 
impossible in the three years that have elapsed to induce the formation 
of any full-sized leaves such as are seen on specimens collected in Australia. 
These plants continue to produce cataphylls and very long, slender spines. 
Even in Australia the trees when young are very thorny and have only 
very narrow leaves. 
Plants have been sent to a number of localities in Florida, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Oregon for trial 
and within a year or two it will be possible to ascertain with a fair degree 
1 The Australian species of Citrus, C. australis ,. C. australasica , and C. Garrowayi, germinate in the same 
way, producing alternate cataphylls which gradually become larger and usually after a few months are 
replaced by true leaves of nearly full size. These three Australian species of Citrus, together with the 
broad-leaved C. inodor a F. M. Bail., constitute a very distinct group of species differing from the other 
species of Citrus in a number of other characters, such as the small flowers, with free stamens and a few- 
celled ovary with only four or six ovules in a cell. 
