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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



the seeds moist and at a low temperature. Probably the 

 same results would accrue from placing the seeds in cold 

 storage, but the method I have described is probably 

 more convenient for the average gardener. 



An instance I have in mind will serve to show that it 

 is not merely a matter of keeping seeds of this character 

 moist through the winter that assists their germination. 

 A quantity of seed of Androsace imbricata was received 

 and divided into two equal parts, one batch was sown, 

 placed in a slighth- heated greenhouse and kept moist in 



the usual way. The other batch was sown outdoors and 

 remained exposed to the weather all the winter. Of the 

 seeds in the greenhouse, only two germinated, while of 

 those sown outdoors, over fifty germinated the following 

 spring. 



We have still much to learn with regard to the be- 

 havior of different seeds under varying circumstances, 

 and much information is to be gained by experimenting 

 and noting the results of different methods of germinat- 

 ing seeds. 



Naturalizing Botanical Strangers 



.Abelmoschus Esculentis and Brassica Juncea, from 

 Russia, likewise the charming Codonopsis Tangshen, 

 from Ichang, China, and the handsome Pittosporum 

 Tenuifolium from New Zealand, are about to settle 

 among us. Whether or not they will take up a permanent 

 residence here depends wholly on how they like America ; 

 for the United States Government has already extended 

 its welcome to them, and citizens in various parts of the 

 country are awaiting their arrival. And with Abel- 

 moschus Esculentis and the others come some 367 

 strangers besides from Europe and Asia and South 

 America and .Africa and Australia and the islands of the 

 sea — foreign plants, all, being "introduced" to America. 



In the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, the "office of foreign seed 

 and plant introduction" is busy over the distribution of 

 371 different plants — plants useful and plants merely 

 ornamental, plants which are sure to thrive here, and 

 plants which will perhaps refuse to live at all in America 

 ■ — to be tested and if possible adopted here. Most of the 

 plants are "practical." and most of them, it is believed, 

 will flourish, somewhere or other, on American soil. A 

 good many are vegetables — a husk tomato from IMexico, 

 for instance, and a reed from Japan that is very much like 

 asparagus. 



Many others are fruits — some wonderful nectarines 

 from British India, and delicious sounding sugar apples 

 from the Malay Islands, and fifty dift'erent varieties of 

 melons. And there are trees and nuts and herbs and 

 flowers and "sand-binders" to be transplanted to America 

 and to be urged to grow in gardens or mountain tracts, 

 or sandy soil. 



That the Department of .Agriculture has gone to no 

 small expense over the introduction of the heterogeneous 

 colony that Abelmoschus Esculentis leads goes without 

 saying. But any one who wants to "try out" the foreign 

 plants in his garden has only to write to the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, with the name and number of the desired 

 visitors quite plainly given, and — unless the letter arrives 

 too late for the Winter distribution — the seeds or bulbs 

 or shoots will be forwarded at nnce. In some cases the 

 bureau has obtained only a few plants of a particular kind, 

 but in most such cases when it is impossible to meet re- 

 quests other plants of the same species and variety will 

 be sent instead. 



.Applicants for plant distributions are expected to supplv 

 the bureau at Washington with full details as to their 

 facilities for caring for and experimenting with the 

 foreign plants, and the bureau, in turn, has full informa- 

 tion to give out as to just the sort of places to which the 

 visitors from overseas are likely to turn with favor, and 

 the sort of treatment to which tliey have been accustomed 

 "back home." 



Abelmoschus Esculentis is a Russian variety of okra. 

 It grows in the Caucasus, and Frank N. ■\Ieyer, hunting 

 "specimens" for the Department of Agriculture, found it 

 at a place called Erivan, in Caucasian Russia. It is said 

 to be a most excellent sort of okra, but — and this is the 

 last thing we should expect from a stranger from Russia 

 — it must make its home in the hot-summered, arid, and 

 semi-arid regions of Western America, and it must be 

 tested under irrigation. Abelmoschus Esculentis, it seems 

 likely, is a guest which will require a deal of care. 



Quite otherwise is it with Amygdalus Persica — whose 

 other name, by the way, is Nectarina, and w-ho is not to 

 be confused with that Amygdalus Persica that is an or- 

 namental peach. Amygdalus Persica Nectarina was sent 

 by Lieut. W. L. Maxwell from Quetta, British India, 

 and is known as the Quetta nectarine. And as Quetta 

 lies at an altitude of 6.000 feet and offers to its inhabitants 

 changes of temperature that range from 100 degrees 

 Fahrenheit to something below zero — as Amygdalus 

 Persica, moreover, thrives in that climate — it is hoped 

 that the nectarine will be able to endure the contrasts of 

 the American weather I 



Brassica Juncea, whose name is not whiskered with 

 such poignant suggestion of Cossack and Nihilist as 

 that of .Abelmoschus, is quite as distinctly Russian, and 

 promises to be a more important acquisition. For Bras- 

 sica Juncea is the scientific name for the famous Sarepta 

 mustard, grown in Sarepta, in the Saratoff Government, 

 Russia, and favored throughout Russia and in other 

 European countries beside. Sarepta mustard when 

 ground into powder makes a particularly strong mustard, 

 but in addition to this the seeds themselves are used in 

 cooking, and the oil that can be extracted from the seed 

 is not infrequently utilized by the Russian people for 

 culinary purposes. 



Of all the foreign plants being imported this Winter, 

 none is more interesting and none offers a wider variety 

 of uses than the trees. There are fruit trees and timber 

 trees, shade trees, and "windbreaks," oil trees, "com- 

 mercial rubber" trees, trees that promise food for cattle 

 and trees that are rich in tonic drugs, one tree the leav'es 

 of which provide such a strong stimulant that the plant 

 can be given out only under restrictions and only for in- 

 vestigating, trees that are useful in preparing dyes and 

 trees that have a bark astringent enough for tanning pur- 

 poses, and one tree that supplies a substitute for tea — 

 trees literally of all kinds and for all uses. The tree that 

 is brought to this country for quite restricted distribution, 

 for instance, is the "khat tree" of Arabia and Abyssinia, 

 in which far regions its culture is an important industry. 

 It is brought to the United States from Harrar, in Abys- 

 sinia, bv the Arabs. Its leaves are chewed for the strong 

 stimulant of the alkaloid thev obtain. — Times. 



