106 MILLER: THE PROPAGATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS 
method of propagation which does not augment these conditions 
is soon abandoned. Also, in the case of medicinal forms, the 
problems of propagation, though essential of solution, are only 
supplementary to other more valuable and interesting ones. The 
improvement of drug plants through selective breeding and 
hybridization, their successful cultivation upon a commercial 
scale, with the involved questions of practical and economic pro- 
duction, are more attractive, but in the end are all dependent 
upon successful propagation. 
With medicinal plants it is many times difficult to obtain 
sufficient materials from which to propagate. Isolated, restricted, 
and many times unknown regions of production, make it almost 
impossible to obtain either seeds or plants. Even syndicates 
and sometimes government control have so monopolized these 
regions that they are practically inaccessible to the individual 
investigator. In an effort to obtain sufficient material with which 
to evolve certain problems upon the cultivation and improvement 
of the more valuable drug plants, difficulties were soon encountered 
in locating reliable sources of supply. Any study of the methods 
of propagation must therefore consist of, first, the obtaining ot 
locating of suitable materials and, second, the various methods by 
which these may be successfully propagated and perpetuated. 
The first part of this discussion will, therefore, deal with probable 
sources of seeds and plants and the second with their propagation. 
A thorough search has been made in an effort to locate the 
best and most probable sources for these materials. The results 
are given under the following five divisions: 
I. Commercial samples and shipments of crude drugs. 
II. Crude drug merchants. ! 
III. Individuals living in or near producing regions, or others 
carrying on investigations with similar plants. 
IV. Public and private botanical gardens, experiment stations 
and other institutions. 
V. Commercial seedsmen and nurserymen. 
A discussion of these sources together with results obtained 
follows in the foregoing order. 
