LETTERS FROM MR. PRANK N. MEYER, AGRICULTURAL EXPLORER, TIPLIS, 
CAUCASUS, RUSSIA, In a letter of April 1, he says that 
Mr. A. C. Rolloff, Director of the Botanical Garden at Tiflis, 
is unusually well informed in regard to the economic products 
of the Caucasus, and wants tb exchange seeds and plants with 
the Department. He offers Caucasian varieties of various 
fruits, as apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, pomegran- 
ates, etc.; also seeds and plants of various native trees, 
shrubs and herbaceous plants. The Department of Agriculture 
there has a corps of foresters all over the country, and 
practically any plant described from the Caucasus can be ob- 
tained at the Tiflis Botanical Garden. They have the largest 
collection in the world of native Caucasian plants and are 
increasing it all the time. Mr. Rolloff offers to send seeds 
of Medicago glutinosa, a very promising Caucasian alfalfa, and 
other drought resistant legumes adapted for fodder plants. 
April 2 he writes that in A3ia Minor there are varieties of 
Prunus lauro-cerasus cultivated for their fruits, which are 
large and sweet and are considered by the Turks to be an 
especially fine fruit. Dr. Schmidt, Director of the Cau- 
casian Museum, recommends that we try all the native Caucasian 
species of Trifolium, 53 of them. He recommends Trifolium 
resupinatum as a lawn plant on account of its delicious 
perfume. He says the finest hazelnuts grow around Trebizond 
and Kerasund in Asia Minor, and the Turkish Government has 
1 prohibited their exportation. He has heard that bamboos grown 
in colder localities do not split like those grown in the 
subtropical climate of Chakva. There are large clumps of 
Phyllostachys quilioi, P. mitis, and P. aurea, growing here 
and there in the Caucasus, and the people are beginning to 
make bamboo furniture. All these three species have stood 
nearly 10° below zero P. in Tiflis, and were not killed. The 
Government intends to build factories for utilizing the 
bamboos as soon as the supply gets large enough to warrant 
the outlay. 
RECENT VISITORS. 
BRAZIL. Doctor Edmundo Navarro de Andrade represents the Paulista 
R, R. Co., one of the largest railroads in Brazil. He is 
especially interested in the commercial growing of eucalypts 
and has a collection of over 73 varieties growing near Sao 
Paulo. He not only has these eucalypts, but has made a col- 
lection of the forest trees of Brazil, at least of his im- 
mediate region, and maintains an arboretum from which he can 
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