LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



BOTAMCAL 



(iARDEM 



INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY 

 THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRO- 

 DUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM JUNE I TO 

 SEPTEMBER :!(), 1920 (NO. 64 ; NOS. 50648 TO 51:367). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



During the period covered by this inventory three agricultural 

 explorers were in the field for the Bureau of Plant Industry. Wilson 

 Popenoe finished his plant hunting in Guatemala and Costa Rica, 

 and after a brief stay in the Canal Zone, commenced work in the 

 Colombian highlands. Dr. H. L. Shantz was making his way 

 through British East Africa, preparatory to coming down the Nile. 

 Joseph F. Rock, who has joined the force of this office and has 

 become an agricultural explorer for it, was on his way to Siam 

 and Burma to search for seeds of the tree which yields the chaul- 

 moogra oil that has proved so successful in the treatment of leprosy. 



Mr. Rock sent in from the island of Oahu (Territory of Hawaii) 

 a showy tree hibiscus {Hibiscus hrachenridgei^ No, 50693), bearing 

 yellow flowers 6 inches across. 



From Guatemala Mr. Popenoe sent in the zacate bianco (Lvophor- 

 us unisefus, No. 50650), one of the best native forage grasses for 

 moist places such as the Everglades. From the region around El 

 Barranquillo. Guatemala, which is exceedingly^ dry for a large part 

 of the year, he sent a collection of flowering trees and shrubs which 

 should find a home in southern Florida and California. 



Mr. Popenoe also obtained seeds of a rare species of Persea {P. 

 casfiilea. No. 51(io2), related to the avocado, which bears racemes 

 of black fruits the size of large peas. Whether or not this has 

 value as a stock for the avocado remains to be seen. Certainly the 

 avocado industry is becoming of such importance as to at arrant 

 the assembling of all the species of the genus Persea, to which the 

 avocado belongs, preparatory to a systematic study of their possibili- 

 ties for breeding purposes. 



The pejibaye palm {Guilielma utilis), a very ancient food plant 

 of Costa Rica, Mr. Popenoe thinks is remarkably promising. It 



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