2 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



This inventory describes under Nos. 55031 to 55039 nine newly 

 originated varieties of Finnish oats sent in from Helsingfors, some 

 of which are reported to be improvements over the Giildregn va- 

 riety, which is a standard in Finland, and others which are said to be 

 particularly suited for cultivation on swampy land. 



Sixty varieties of sorghum have been collected for Mr. Vinall, the 

 sorghum specialist of the department, by the director of agriculture 

 of the Sudan Government from all over the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 

 in the region tributary to Khartum (Nos. 55106 to 55165). 



For the strawberry breeders the Irapuato variety (No. 54976) from 

 the famous strawberry region of that name in Mexico will be of 

 interest. 



The search for varieties of corn which may furnish new characters 

 to be incorporated into our American varieties has been extended to 

 eastern Asia, and through our agricultural explorer, ISIr. Rock, we 

 have received from the slopes of Doi Chang ]Mountain, in upper 

 Siam, a variety (No. 55045) which from time immemorial has been 

 grown by the Miaos, those jungle natives who have long inhabited 

 the high mountains of Siam and who are corn-eating people, despite 

 the fact that all around them the Siamese and Chinese subsist on a 

 diet of rice. 



For the pear breeders and those particularly interested in the dis- 

 covery of a better stock than the one we have for the cultivated pear 

 Mr. Rock has secured seeds of Pyrus fcisMa (No. 54998) from the 

 region of Kengtung, Burma, which, according to the information 

 he could obtain, is used by the natives there as a stock for the sand 

 pear. He has also sent in two new forms (Nos. 55497 and 55550) 

 which he found cultivated near Talifu, in the Province of Yunnan. 



Whether the sugar cane (No. 55501) which Mr. Rock found in 

 cultivation in the dry arid region of Yunnan at 6.000 feet elevation 

 will prove a shorter season variety than those we now have, only a 

 trial will disclose. 



Mr. Rock's discovery and introduction of the new species of cherry, 

 Prunus majestica (Nos. 55417, 55476, 55498, and 55500), from this 

 same region of Yunnan, where, he reports, it makes a tree 30 feet 

 high on the exposed dry ridges 6,000 feet above sea level and pro- 

 duces its juicy bitter-fleshed fruits in great abundance in February 

 and March, may mean the origination of cherries for our Southern 

 States or it may mean a new stock for the cultivated cherry of the 

 North which is more drought resistant than tlie mazzard or the 

 mahaleb. 



"V\niether one or other of these discoveries which Mr. Rock has 

 made will, after the lapse of years, repay him in a measure for the 

 months of hard work and discomfort and isolation which he has been 

 through in his difficult journey into Yunnan from Siam over trails 

 which have never been traveled before by botanists, or whether it 

 will be the loveliness of his new flowering Cassia (No. 55049), which 

 he discovered near Szemao and which in March he found covered 

 with a mass of deep-pink flowers, time alone will show. 



From peach seeds introduced several years ago from Valencia, 

 Spain, there have originated at the Chico Plant Introdrction (rardrn 

 two new and, Mr. Morrow believes, particularly promising varieties 

 of peaches for canning purposes (Nos. 55563 and 55564). 



