July 1 to 31, 1911. 
HEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS. 
ACANTHOSICYOS HORRIDA. ( Cucurbitaceae . ) 31401. Seeds 
of the narras from Walfiseh Bay, West Africa. Presented "by 
Mr. Richard Hornig, Tsuiaeb, German Southwest Africa. "This 
plant is an important dune former and continues to grow with 
the increasing height of the dune, so that its younger shoots 
remain at the surface, forming a dense thorny shrub, while 
the root system penetrates to a considerable depth, tapping 
the underground water and securing such a supply that drops 
exude and fall from the cut ends of assimilating stems. 
Flowering commences in November, and by the middle of 
February the female plants produce ripe fruits, which are 
borne in great profusion, and for about four months in the 
year render the Hottentots independent of other sources of 
food, and to a large extent, of water also. The fruits are 
spheroidal in shape, and about nine inches in diameter. The 
juicy yellow flesh is much relished by the natives, who 
consume large quantities of it while fresh and lay by a store 
for winter use in the form of hard flat cakes obtained by 
evaporation, and its food value is attested by their fat and 
sleek appearance during the narras season. The faculty of 
enjoying the juice evidently has to be acquired, for it has a 
sweet sickly flavor, and contains an acid principle very 
irritating to the tongue and palate of those unaccustomed to 
it; it is said that at the end of the narras season the lips 
of even the habitual consumers are swollen and inflamed. The 
seeds, which somewhat resemble those of the squash, are very 
nutritious and were formerly exported to Cape Town under the 
name of 'butter nuts' , where they found a market among the 
native population and were also used by Europeans as a 
substitute for sweet almonds." (Pearson, Notes on a Journey 
from Walfish Bay to Windhuk, Eew Bull. Misc. Inf. 9i542 
(1907.) For distribution later. 
ANONA MURICATA. (Anonaceae.) 31383. Seeds from 
Piracicaba, Brazil. Presented by Mr. Clinton D. Smith, 
Fazenda Modelo do Estado de Sao Paulo. ""Variety Cabeca de 
Negro. This seems to me to belong to this species and 
variety. There are so many variations in the trees and in 
the. fruits that I cannot as yet clearly determine the lines 
of separation. The natives call this fruit ♦araticu*.* 
(Smith.) For distribution later. 
BRASSICA SP. (Brassicaceae. ) 31476. Seeds of Chinese 
cabbage from China, presented by Mr. G. Weidmann Grof f , 
