MATERIAL FOR PLANT BREEDERS 



MODERN plant breeding pro- 

 ceeds on two principal lines: 

 first, by confining itself alto- 

 gether to present commercial 

 varieties and trying to improve them, 

 usually by some form of selection; 

 second, by the use of new forms, which 

 may be either developed on their own 

 merits, or combined with existing com- 

 mercial strains through hybridization. 

 The first method has i)rcponderated 

 during the last half century, but 

 breeders at present show a tendency to 

 adopt the second method in larger 

 numbers every year. In the United 

 States they probably find their greatest 

 aid to this end in the Office of Foreign 

 Seed and Plant Introduction, of the 

 U. S. Dejmrtment of Agriculture at 

 Washington. 



This office has just issued its Fourth 

 Annual List of New Plant Introductions, 

 in which about 300 species or varieties 

 of plants and seeds which it has recently 

 secured are succinctly described in an 

 accurate and understandable way. This 

 material is available now or will be 

 later available to any bona fide breeder 

 who has proper facilities for making 

 good use of it. 



Much of it, as the introduction to the 

 list points out, is as yet little known 

 even botanically, and quite unknown 

 horticulturally, as far as the United 

 States are concerned. The plants de- 

 scribed have been imported from all 

 parts of the world because it is hojicd 

 that, indirectly or directly, they may be 

 of use to Americans. "They arc intro- 

 duced immarily for use by the Federal 

 and State Experiment Stations of the 

 country, but are available to such 

 private exi)erimenters as have the 

 necessary facilities and are desirous of 

 testing them, notwithstanding the fact 

 that they are quite untried commer- 

 cially. 



"Since these plants must ulliniately 

 be grown by private individuals before 



46 



their commercial success is assured, 

 it may be well to point out that those 

 private experimenters who test these 

 problematical new plants are assisting 

 in a very practical way in the plant 

 introduction work of the country even 

 though they are not paid for their work. 

 "It is often around the successful 

 cultivation of a new introduction by 

 some private individual that a new i)lant 

 industry begins." 



SOME OF THE FE.\TL'RES. 



While the list is made up largely of 

 plants hardly known b\- name to the 

 American horticulturist, there are also 

 many sjjecies of common economic 

 plants, in which every breeder will take 

 an interest, now that the great potential 

 value of wild relatives of our cultivated 

 plants is being widely realized. There 

 are, for example, 10 species of Amygda- 

 lus inventoried, part of which are to be 

 classed among jjcaches and part among 

 almonds. Many of them are adapted 

 to extreme climatic conditions, and may 

 prove valuable in themselves, as well 

 as for breeding. Similarly there arc 

 three promising species of Citrus, besides 

 the rare Eremocitnis glauca or Australian 

 Desert Lime, probably the hardiest of 

 all the citrous fruits. The persimmon 

 genus, Dios]jyros, which has lately been 

 attracting a good deal of attention from 

 American breeders, is represented in 

 the list by three species, while eight 

 species of Alalus will attract the numer- 

 ous apple growers who are seeking new 

 "creations." There are four j^romising 

 species of Olea, the olive genus, 10 of 

 poplar, some of which can hardly fail 

 to be of value in the treeless regions of 

 the Northwest, 12 of Prunus, including 

 several h\-l)rids, and 11 of willow. To 

 cite even a fair selection of the isolated 

 novelties would require too much s])ace, 

 but mention may be made of an edible 

 chrysanthemum from China, the leaves 

 of which are said to be a good substitute 



