20 
"I am glad to see that you have ohtained 
400 catties of Castanea mollis sima seeds-, 200 
dark colored and 200 light colored, 215 catties 
of large sized Chinese walnuts, Juf;lans re gia 
sinensis , and 60 catties of medium sized Chinese 
walnuts. 
"I do not know what the Federal Horticultural 
Board is going to say about these large quantities. 
I have explained to them the good reasons for in- 
troducing large shipments, hut I am not sure that 
I have convinced them of the wisdom of this course. 
My attitude in the matter is that a thorough in- 
spection of the seeds, if it. is done with the 
greatest care, is likely to reveal the presence 
of fungous spores on these large shipments which 
would not he detected on small ones, and these 
infections of the large quantities will often 
reveal the presence of diseases in foreign 
countries which we did not suspect existed. 
"I want to warn you in particular about this 
Pinus bungeana seed. The Forestry Association 
holds a meeting on the 19th of January, and I 
have been asked to give a talk on the independence 
of our American nurseries of European nursery 
stock. They propose as an association to stop 
the introduction of all nursery stock on the 
ground that it is bringing in diseases of forest 
trees such as the pine blister rust which threatens 
to wipe out our wonderful white pine forests. If 
there is any pine disease on the Pinus hungeana, 
v^e ouglit to know it, and if you are where you can 
get at these pines, by all means make a thorough 
search for any possible disease. It v/ould be a 
sad thing to bring in some new kind of disease 
on this wonderful v/hite barked pine. 
"I am glad you have obtained scions of the 
pendulous form of Ulmus pumlla . This ought to 
be a handsome thing. 
" Wistaria venusta I am sure will be a very 
acceptable introduction. 
"A new form of pomegranate will be interest- 
ing to greenhouse growers, I suppose, 
"I am sorry to hear that you have not yet 
secured seed of the wild pears, for there is so 
much interest attaching to this wild pear seed 
that you must not leave any stone unturned to 
secure it. Since you left the interest in 
Reimer's experiments has increased, and the de- 
mand for this seed will be insistent. 
December 31, 1916. 
