810 
pose we have secured one that from all points is an im- 
provement upon the old standard. I am sending some cut- 
tings which you will be able later on to distribute to 
some of your southern states. We have found it here of 
superior value from the standpoints of food value, soft- 
ness, hardiness against low temperatures, and weight per 
acre. It is a prodigious yielder." (Corrie.) 
Salix sp. (Salicaceae . ) 39191. Cuttings of a willow 
from Semipalatinsk, Siberia. Presented by Prof. N. E. 
Hansen, South Dakota Experiment Station. "Cuttings from 
small trees I found growing along a creek about eighty 
miles southwest of Semipalatinsk. This is a very dry 
region with eight inches of annual rainfall, and the tem- 
perature ranging from 50 degrees below zero P. in winter 
to 106 degrees above in summer. The remarkable character- 
istic about this willow is that the young shoots can be 
tied into knots without breaking, so that it should be 
a good basket willow and good for tying bundles of nursery 
stock." (Hansen.) 
Securidaca longepedwnculata . (Asclepiadaceae. ) 39298. 
Seeds from Salisbury, Rhodesia. Presented by Mr. H. God- 
frey Mundy, Government Agrostologist and Botanist. "A 
much-branched shrub eight to ten feet high with violet 
flowers in terminal racemes, found in Abyssinia, the Mo- 
zambique district and in Upper and lower Guinea. The 
bark of this plant affords the Buaze fiber of Zambesi- 
land." (Oliver, Flora of Tropical Africa.) Of this fiber 
as early as 1857 i was reported: "The Buaze fiber ap- 
pears to resemble flax, and as prepared by you (Messrs. 
Pye Bros, of London) will be equal to flax worth 50 or 60 
pounds per ton, but we could hardly speak positively to 
the value unless we had one or two hundredweight to try 
on our machinery. However, we think the result is promis- 
ing, and we hope further inquiry will be made as to the 
probable supply of the material." Dr. Livingstone states 
"that the only use it has been put to is in making threads 
on which the natives string their beads. Elsewhere the 
split tendons of animals are employed for this purpose. 
This seems to be of equal strength, for a firm thread of 
it feels like catgut in the hand, and would rather cut the 
fingers than break." (Dodge, Fiber Plants.) 
Sterculia carfhaginensis . (Sterculiaceae . ) 39221. Seeds 
of the anacahuita from Guantanamo, Cuba. Presented by Mr. 
Juan T. Rolg, Botanist, Cuban Experiment Station. "The 
most popular tree at Guantanamo. From the flowers a de- 
coction is made against cough. The seeds are toasted and 
eaten like peanuts." (Roig.) 
