2008 
"Some months ago, this Department received requests from several Florida hor- 
ticulturists for plants of Gros Michel. Unable to fill them, we turned to tropical 
America. Through the courtesy of Victor M. Cutter, Esq., Vice-president of the 
United Fruit Co., we have now received a shipment of 'stumps' from which a number 
of sturdy young plants are being propagated in the greenhouses at Washington. 
Though the stumps came from Santa Marta, Colombia, a region in which Panama disease 
has never been found, the young plants will be held in quarantine at Washington un- 
til all danger of their carrying any diseases or pests into Florida is past. They 
will then be distributed to banana growers who desire to test this variety in com- 
parison with others now cultivated in that State." (Wilson Popenoe.) 
nephelium mutabile ( Sapindaceae ) , 60171. Pula«an. From Buitenzorg, Java. 
Seeds presented by Dr. P. J. S. Cramer, director, General Experiment Station, 
Department of Agriculture. 
"I have never seen a fruiting tree of this species in tropical America, 
though perhaps a few may exist in the botanic gardens of the British West Indies. 
Its congener, the rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), is nearly as rare in this part of 
the world; there are several bearing specimens in the lowlands of Ecuador. 
"The pulasan is so closely similar to the rambutan in general character that 
it is sold in the markets of Singapore as a variety of the latter. Both these 
fruits are related to the lychee, and are native to the Malayan region. They are 
tropical in their requirements, and in the United States will probably not suc- 
ceed; they merit cultivation however, in Porto Rico, the Canal Zone, and elsewhere. 
"As far as I have seen, the pulasan tree does not exceed 30 feet in height. 
The leaves are compound, with two to four pairs of oblong to elliptic, acuminate 
leaflets 5 to 10 inches long. The red fruit, commonly borne in small clusters, 
is about the size of a walnut; the pericarp is thick, and covered with short, 
blunt, stout, fleshy spines. The flesh (properly the aril) is translucent, whit- 
ish, juicy, and of sweet, slightly acidulous flavor; it contains a single oblong 
seed of large size." (Wilson Popenoe.) 
ornithogalum thyrsoides (Liliaceae), 60168. From Pretoria, Transvaal, 
Union of South Africa. Bulbs presented by I. B. Pole Evans, chief, Division of 
Botany. 
This South African liliaceous plant was figured in Curtis 's Botanical Maga- 
zine for the year 1809, under the name "Thryse-Flowered Star of Bethlehem." 
In its native home it is called "chinkerichee, " a name applied also to other mem- 
bers of the genus. The globose bulb is about 2 inches thick, and the five or six 
narrow leaves are 6 inches to a foot in length. The flowers, which are borne at 
the upper end of a scape sometimes as much as 2 feet high, are slightly over an 
inch broad. They have six oblong- lanceolate petals, pure white in the variety 
here introduced, though brownish toward the base in the typical form of the 
species. 
