March 18, 1927
Dr. L. H. Pammel
Station A.
A. & M. College
Department of Botany
Ames, Iowa
My dear Dr. Pammel:--
I was delighted to get your good letter, and to know that you start for home on the 15. I trust that you will have a safe journey and will return feeling much refreshed and greatly benefited, as I know you will be with such a rich flora as you have had the privilege of being in for several weeks.
I had a trip yesterday through the country about twelve miles, and really enjoyed it, I walked about ten miles and seemed to suffer no ills from the effect of the trip and the long walk.
In the St. Louis Daily Globe Democrat for March 13, 1927 comes this interesting observation: It seems that a Dr. Stout told of laboratories at the New York Botanical Garden. He discovered an astonishing kind of change in the Avocado flowerthat the flower reverses its sex from male to female, or from female to male each day. Instead of being all alike as they appear to be the Avocado flowers are divided into two diametrically opposite groups. One group is male in the morning and female in the after noon. He further said that ignorance of this fact has been the cause of the fruitless orchards in California and Florida. This is certainly a striking observation.
With sincerely good wishes and highest personal regards, I am
Very sincerely yours
G. W. Carver
Department of Research
and Experiment Station