687 
state that is so sweet that one can hardly eat It. She 
compared it with our pears. Although this is not the sea- 
son I found the jaboticabas (Myrciaria sp . ) in fruit and 
we have made jelly of some of them. I have nine trees 
on a little place of my own, that were transplanted, most 
of them being trees already several years old." 
, Philippine Islands. Manila. Mr. 0. W. Barrett, Chief 
of the Division of Horticulture, writes Sept. 2: "Mr. 
Wester has sent you personally a lot of 'Marang' (Artocar- 
pus odoratissimus Blanco) seeds. I have just had the pleas- 
ure of tasting this very interesting and probably poten- 
tially important fruit, and find it about the best thing 
of its kind I have ever tasted. It partakes of the aro- 
matic sweetness of the sugar apple but does not have the 
objectionable granulations, though the rag is slightly 
more in evidence. The total amount of edible pulp in one 
of these large fruits is something quite out of the ordi- 
nary. The natives in western Mindanao are very fond of 
the fruit and are making some attempt to cultivate the 
tree. It does not seem to be known to Americans thus far. 
By the way, I have just come across another economic Arto- 
carpus {A. cwmingiana Tree); the seeds about one-half the 
size of American chestnuts are roasted or boiled and eaten 
like peanuts. You will be interested to know that Mr. 
Wester has just found the mangosteen fruiting in Southern 
Oriental Negros, the farthest north locality on record. 
There are vague reports of its occurring still farther 
north. More interesting still, however, is Mr. Boyle's 
recent departure for the pomelo plantations of Siam. 
Though he had some trouble in making connections with 
Bangkok boats in Hongkong he has already sent us several 
lots of plants collected in Hongkong and the neighboring 
mainland; among these a collection of orchids obtained 
from a wealthy mandarin, including the exceedingly rare 
black orchid and a large pure yellow species, all terres- 
trial. Mr. Boyle expects to stop a while in Saigon, and 
if all goes well, will probably return via Singapore." 
Recent Visitors. 
Among recent visitors to the Office was Dr. E. C. 
Joss who is visiting Australia and New Zealand in the in- 
terest of the Bureau of Animal Industry of this Departf- 
ment to study the meat inspection' service of Australia. 
He has promised to make every effort to secure for us Gar- 
cirvia mestoni, probably the hardiest relative of the man- 
gosteen, and Citrus inodorus , an extremely hardy edible 
fruited species related to the lime. The Garcinia es- 
pecially has a large fruit said to be edible. Both spe- 
