B. P. I.— 443. 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED DURING THE 

 PERIOD FROM JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1908: 

 INVENTORY XO. 16; NOS. 23323 TO 23744. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This inventory of seeds and plants imported is the sixteenth in a 

 series which was begun in 1898. It contains the introductions of only 

 three months, and as the three months happened to fall at a time 

 when our agricultural explorer Mr. Frank X. Meyer was in this 

 country preparing for further explorations and Prof. N. E. Hansen 

 was on his way to Central Asia or preparing there to collect the seeds 

 of wild alfalfas on the steppes, the number of plants imported is 

 small. It represents, therefore, only those things which have been 

 secured by correspondence with our agents and friends in different 

 parts of the world. 



Through a correspondent in Chile, Mr. Jose D. Husbands, an un- 

 usual collection of seventy-two potato varieties was secured, among 

 which are wild types from the archipelago of Chiloe and the adjoin- 

 ing mainland of Chile. These, it is hoped, will prove of considerable 

 value for the breeders of this important crop. The unusual interest 

 in the Peruvian strains of alfalfa induced us to get, through Mr. T. F. 

 Sedgwick, of Lima, a collection of ten reputed different strains, while 

 Mr. M. Fraile, of this Bureau, brought from near his home in Villares 

 de la Reina, Spain, plants of a wild form of alfalfa which is of espe- 

 cial interest to the experts on this crop. The unusual activity of the 

 office in the introduction of the timber bamboos of the world has 

 brought in the rare and especially frost and drought resistant form 

 Dendrocalamus strictus from India, and another, a tropical species, 

 Chusquea bambusaeoides, which is said to seed regularly, from Rio 

 de Janeiro, Brazil. Mr. W. S. Lyon, of Manila, has sent a remarkable 

 ornamental squash that looks promising for greenhouse culture ; Mrs. 

 L. E. M. Kelly has sent five varieties of the Chinese leitchee from 

 the island of Hainan, the home of this new fruit, and through the 

 kindness of Dr. John M. Swan, of Canton, a Wardian-case shipment 

 of grafted leitchees was sent from Canton to the Hawaiian Islands. 

 The seeds of a number of named varieties of Japanese chrysanthe- 

 mums will interest the crysanthemum growers; the seed of a honey- 

 scented collarette dahlia will attract the growers of this flower; the 

 introduction of Viola calcarata may lead to an improvement in the 

 148 . 5 



