B. P. I.— 238. 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED DURING THE PERIOD FROM 

 DECEMBER, 190S, TO JULY, 1906. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



Thi.s twelfth inventory of seeds and plants imported, prepared under 

 the immediate supervision of Mr. Walter Fischer, represents the acces- 

 sions of this Ottice between the dates of December 15, 1905, and July 

 27, 1906, a period of about seven months. It contains 2,200 items, 

 which is as large a numl)er as was represented by the collections of a 

 whole year when this Office was organized in 1898, notwithstanding 

 the fact that the present lists are the result of a more rigid selection 

 than at the outset. 



To the outsider it may seem strange that larger numbers of plants 

 and seeds are not accumulated in so long a period. To these it may 

 be said that it is not the object of the work of plant introduction to 

 collect as many species and varieties of plants which may have some 

 economic use in this country as is possible, but rather to carefully 

 collect only such forms as can be put to a really practical use by 

 American cultivators. This Office is informed of hosts of useful plants 

 now growing in different parts of the world which are not yet on the 

 program of practical plant introduction. At a small expense thou- 

 sands of these useful plants could be gathered and placed in collections, 

 but the cost of maintaining any one of them would in a few years far 

 exceed the cost of procuring it anew for the definite experiments of 

 the experts of the country who may want it for breeding purposes, as 

 a stock on which to graft, or as a possible new crop for hitherto 



unused lands. 



The principle, then, of systematic plant introduction, as it is carried 

 on by this Office, is to get the seeds and plants that are wanted for 

 the solution of definite problems in the establishment of new plant 

 industries; import them in sufficient quantities for large and conclu- 

 sive experiments, and place them as soon as possible in the hands of 

 experts who will carry out at once such experiments. 



Among the collections of new introductions included in this inven- 

 tory there are some that are worthy of special mention here. Prin- 

 cipal among these are the collections of our agricultural explorer 



106 5 



