1978 
excellent growth. There is no reason to suspect that they will not prove 
adapted to that region, since the variety appears to be a straight West 
Indian, and this race is known to thrive in southern Florida. As to the 
season of ripening, however, it is unsafe to make a prediction. If it 
should happen to precede other West Indian varieties by two or three 
weeks, it would be of unusual value; if it is no earlier than other sorts 
now grown in Florida, it may still be worth growing, because of the ex- 
cellent appearance and quality of the fruit. 
Wilson Popenoe 
New Chestnuts and Related Trees from Southwestern China* 
One of the objects of J. F. Rock's agricultural explorations in 
western China was to secure new and promising chestnuts and related 
species for introduction into the United States. His search in the 
province of Yunnan brought to light a number of interesting forms, some 
of which have been successfully introduced into this country and are 
now being carefully nursed with the object of establishing them here. 
This bit of exploration carried on by Mr. Rock illustrates some 
of the difficulties met with in such undertakings. The province of 
Yunnan -is a remote part of western China, lying north of Siam and on 
the northeastern border of India. The country is difficult of access, 
and when once entered, traveling is not without serious hardships. It 
is a region of magnificent mountains, high plains, small and large 
valleys, deep gorges, and rushing waters. The climate is unlike any- 
thing we have in this country, but if the southern part of Florida 
could be elevated so that considerable areas were from 5,000 to 15,000 
feet above sea level we might have something approaching conditions as 
they exist in Yunnan. The temperatures, even at the high elevations, 
are never very low, but snow. is common. It would seem likely that the 
speciee of Castanea or chestnut and of Castanopsis, which is closely 
related to the chestnut, secured by Mr. Rock, may find a congenial 
home in portions of the South where our own native chestnut grows, 
and possibly also on the Pacific Coast, notably the cool humid sec- 
tions euch as that around Eureka, in northern California. 
The northeast corner of Mississippi, the northern half of Alabama, 
and about one-third of Georgia bordering on Alabama and Tennessee con- 
stitute the southern portion of the territory covered by our native 
chestnut . 
Chestnut blight is continuing its ravages and is gradually en- 
croaching on the remaining forests found in the Southern States. It is 
too early to say that the chestnuts discovered by Mr. Rock are blight re- 
sistant. We are hoping that this may be the case. Anyway, they have 
characters which make them promising and worthy of trial here. 
