811 
Triticuni sp. (Po'aceae.) 39227. Seeds of wheat from 
Bombay ,* India. ~ Presented by Mr* Henry D. Baker, American 
Consul, who secured it from Mr. Prank Harrison 1 , Bombay. 
"This wheat grows wild irt Kathiawar , " a very dry tract on 
the west coast of India, north of Bombay . fa lt is §ald all 
wheats in existence can be traced back to"this stock and 
that it spreads' from India westward via Chaldia (Mesopo- 
tamia) and Egypt, thousands of yearfs ago.- Natives who eat 
thisnwheat, de'clare it is more palatable arid has a better 
food value than any of the modeflh varieties grown in 
India. It has great drought res'is'ting propertied and 
^should do well , in the arid tracts of the southern states 
of America. Natives collect this wh$at in the jungle, a arid 
separate it from the straw ' by treading, i.'e., cattle are 
made to walk over it in a circle unt£l the grain is sepa- 
rated from the straw. They "then pass the %rain through 
hand querns (mills) in order to get rid of the chaff or 
husk, which is- very thick." (Harrison.) 
NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS ABROAD, n 
Straits Settlements. Singapore.' Mr. I. H. Burkill, 
Director of the Botanic Garden, writes October <o in reply 
to our request for information concerning his new method 
of shipping mangos teen cseedfi : "I* may tell you -that I have 
young plants growing now from mangosteen seed whioh were 
sent by parcel post to New York and i*eturned through the 
Dead Letter Office. So I see ho reason why we should not 
get live seed to you." The method according to the Gar- 
deners' Chronicle, consisted first in washing »ihe seeds 
with a weak carbolic acid solution, and then packing them 
In moist charcoal previously sterilized with carbolic 
acid. Seeds of mangosteen treated thus germinated well 
after a journey extending over 3 months. 
China, Lanchowfu. Mr. Prank N. .Meyer writes Dec. 1 ' 10, 
1914. "At last I have, arrived here in the provincial 
capital of Kansu and I feel like an old-time sailing ship 
that has come into port, loaded full with all isorts of 
things. But the ship has weathered' some storms and it is 
with the loss of the main sail Jbhat it is berthed here 
now. For, and this is a bad ^thing 1 indeed, my interpreter 
and the coolie have deserted me cowardly in Siku, for fear 
of being killed by Tibetans! 
My Dutch assistant, however, has stuck faithfully to 
me, which is a fine thing, for without him I would not 
have known what to do, as he is much better able to deal 
with these rough Kansu people than I am myself and under- 
stands the' dialects so much better than I do. 
