TIIE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
0()0 
ed, many of them for quantities of a single variety of 50,000 or 
more, in two instances 250,000. Such special permits under 
Regulation 14 have been issued to date for over 1,500,000 bulbs 
and other ]dants. All these requests are passed upon by the ex¬ 
perts of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department and, as 
noted, most of them have been approved, including even the 
large quantities indicated. In the case of these larger importa¬ 
tions the evidence seemed to be adequate to warrant introduc¬ 
tions on such a large scale for the purpose of establishing re¬ 
production plantings adequate to meet American needs. Never¬ 
theless, the importation of paints running into these large quan¬ 
tities of a single kind involves the necessity on the part of the 
Board to keep under certain supervision and to safeguard such 
importations to see that the bulbs and plants thus imported are 
used for the purpose specified and do not get at once or within a 
short time into ordinary commercial channels. 
The Board regrets very much that it has been necessary to 
make so many changes and announcements in regard to these 
special permits. It must in fairness, however, be recognized 
that this whole field is a new and untried one and that such 
changes must be made frequently at the outset, as our informa¬ 
tion grows, and new needs develop. Ultimately the methods will 
become fixed and standardized and undoubtedly more easily 
workable. The object of the Board will be to try to keep the re¬ 
quirements as plain and simple as possible and yet extend the 
protection which will be demanded, not only in the interest of 
the efficient administration of the quarantine, but also in the in¬ 
terest of the individuals who are earnestly going forward to de¬ 
velop production in the United States of plants which have 
hitherto been largely imported. 
The explanation of the provisions for the entry of new va¬ 
rieties and propagating stock under Quarantine No. 37 has been 
issued as Circular Letter 105, revised .Tuly 28, 1919. Paragraph 
4 in this Circular Letter reads as follows: 
This application ])oints out the condition that if the 
applicant has requested the importation of larger quan¬ 
tities of stock than can be housed and cared for in the 
inspection houses of the Department of Agriculture, he 
will be required to provide local storage in Washing¬ 
ton for such material during the period of detention for 
examination and, if necessary, provide also for the cost 
of disinfection. Small shipments which can be easily 
handled will be repacked without charge and the original 
containers will be employed for such repacking wherever 
possible, but the importer will be required to meet the 
cost of such repacking and of new containers when such 
are necessary. 
It was anticipated that importations under regulation 14, be¬ 
ing essentially for introduction purposes, would be for the most 
part of small bulk and that the Department could, therefore, 
handle most of them without much, if any, additional cost to 
the importer. When it became evident that advantage would be 
taken of regulation 14 to bring in shipments of huge size, run¬ 
ning perhaps into carload shipments, it became necessary for 
the Department to require the importer to meet all necessary 
costs. The Board has in mind a plan which it would like to put 
into operation with importers which will be a distinct aid to 
those whose importations are of considerable bulk, namely, to 
undertake to arrange with some local transfer and storage com¬ 
pany to act as the agent of the importer and to remove these im¬ 
portations from the Custom House, Georgetown, to suitable 
quarters for their inspection and, where necessary, disinfection 
and, after inspection, to attend to the shipment of the goods to 
destination. The Board can probably provide an expert horti¬ 
culturist to supervise the work, but it would prefer to have the 
trades involved furnish their own agent who would remain tem- 
porarily or permanently in Washington for this purpose. In 
the case of very large importations by a single person or firm, 
it may be desirable for such person or firm to provide his or 
their own agent to supervise such handling and safeguarding of 
the importation pending its inspection, certification, and bonding. 
The form of the bond to be reqrired will be issued in a few 
days. It will be based on the very simple bonding system which 
has been long used by the customs officials in relation to import¬ 
ed goods shipped in bond or held in bond for any purpose. While 
the legal phraseology may seem formidable, the system is simple 
enough and involves no risk and comparatively little expense to 
a man who has no other intention than to comply with the con¬ 
ditions under which the importation is authorized. 
Yours very truly, 
C. L. Marlatt 
Chairman of Board. 
Forms of application can be obtained by addressing the Fed¬ 
eral Horticultural Board, Washington, D. C,—Ed. 
What we may expect if the health of the people as well as 
plants is given in charge of the Federal 
Horticultural Board 
IIALESIA TETEAPTERA, VAU MONTICOLA 
The Silver Pell tree of the soulherii states, Ilalesia let- 
raptera, has long been cultivated in northern gardens. It 
is usually shrubby in habit with several stout wide- 
sjireading steins, and here at the north, rarely grows 
more than tifteen or twenty feet high. It is an inhabitant 
of the southern states from West Virginia to southern 
Illinois, northern Elorida and eastern Texas. It grows 
at low altitudes and does not appear to ascend to tin* 
slopes of the high Apiialachian Mountains, although the 
Ilalesia of those mountain forests was long considered 
identical with the lowland tree. The Ilalesia of the high 
slopes, however, is a tree often eighty or ninety feet high, 
with a trunk three feet in diameter, sometimes free of 
branches for a distance of sixty feet from the ground. 
It is a|)])arently only in recent years that this mountain 
tree has been introduced into cultivation by the Biltmore 
Nurseiy. 
The mountain tree which has lately been distinguished 
as var. monticola gro^\ s as a trc^e from the time the seed 
germinates and the seedlings show no variation of habit. 
Young trees are clean stemmed with short branches 
which form a narrow jiyramidal head. The leaves are of 
rather ditfiuent shajie and less hairy than those of the 
lowland triu'; the llowers are fully a third larger and the 
fruit is nearly twice as largi*. Trees h'ss than ten feet 
produce llowins and fruit in ahundanci'. There is now 
every reason to beleive that the mountain Ilalesia will 
prove one of the handsomest flowering trees of large size 
which it is jiossible to cultivate in this climate. Its tall 
tiTink and narrow head suggest that it n)ay prove a good 
street and roadside tree. 
Nurserymen in past years used to worry about the brush pile, 
whatever else they may have to worry about, it is not likely to 
be a brush pile this year or for several years to come. Judging 
from the demand for nursery stock, it is not a case of who 
quotes the lowest price but who has the stock? The price is 
only a secondary consideration. 
