B. P. I.— 541. 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED DURING THE 

 PERIOD FROM APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1910: 

 INVENTORY NO. 23; NOS. 27481 TO 28324. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This quarterly inventory, covering the period from April 1 to June 

 30, 1910, contains the collections of only one agricultural explorer in 

 the field, Mr. Frank N. Meyer, whose collecting during this period was 

 confined to the mountains of the Caucasus, where he went pending 

 permission from the Russian authorities to enter Chinese Turkestan. 



Among the 154 introductions which he found worthy of sending 

 in are the Erivan alfalfa (No. 27980), which the agriculturists in 

 that region have found to be longer lived than the Turkestan variety; 

 a perennial Medicago with large leaves, growing at an altitude of 

 4,000 feet, which promises to be of use in breeding new strains of 

 hardy alfalfa; a collection of hard-fleshed table grapes, some of 

 which have unusual keeping and shipping qualities (Nos. 27538-27540 

 and 27620-27650); a dry-land Caucasian beech (No. 27662); scions 

 from wild trees of a shrubby species of pear for use as a dwarfing stock 

 (Pyrus nivalis elaeagrifolia, No. 27670); a collection of Caucasian 

 peaches (Nos. 27614-27619); and scions of the true Paradise apple 

 (Malus pumila, No. 27968) cut from wild trees, for experiments with 

 the crown gall, which was found by Mr. Meyer very prevalent in the 

 French nurseries of dwarfed apples from which importations are 

 made to America. 



Of the plants sent in by correspondents, those experimenting 

 with the different materials used in paper making will be interested 

 in the Japanese species Abelmoschus maniliot (No. 27493), the muci- 

 laginous juice of which is used by the paper makers of Japan as a size 

 for their handmade papers. A new and delicious fruit introduction 

 by Mr. Walter Fischer, of Para, which he thinks will live in the Ever- 

 glades, is the Rollinia (No. 27579), which grows on the lowlands along 

 the mouth of the Amazon and occurs in Paraguay (Nos. 27609 and 

 27797). The Korean chestnut (No. 27587) will be of interest to those 

 who are hunting for resistant species which are immune to the chest- 

 nut-tree disease, which is doing such widespread damage. Forage- 

 plant specialists of the New England States will probably wish to test 



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