xviii PREFACE 



of fragrant verbena and fragrant dahlia; improved Australian star-flower 

 (Cephalipternm ?) ; many thousands of new hybrid plums and prunes, not 

 only those in cultivation but many not in cultivation; some strange hybrid 

 forms of delphinium; new hybrid watsonias; new cherries, peaches, plums, 

 apricots, nectarines, quinces, ekeaguus; very remarkable hybrid grapes, 

 among them seedless varieties and the earliest grape known; numerous mes- 

 embryanthemums ; some very striking new hybrid cacti, among them some 

 entirely new opuntias which have lost the bristles as well as the spines; and 

 also some unusual novelties in pentstemons, trifoliums, brodia^as, etc." 



It is not my purpose to make a record here of all the new horticultural 

 plants that have been introduced to North America since the Cyclopedia was 

 written. If such an attempt were made, it should really call for a new 

 study of the cultivated plants of southern Florida and California in order to 

 determine the horticultural status of those regions. The horticultural plants 

 of California, in particular, are not completely represented in the Cyclopedia, 

 chiefly because very many of them are not definitely "in the trade" in the sense 

 of being listed in catalogues, partly because they have not been carefully 

 studied, and partly because I had not myself visited California until the initial 

 plans for the Cyclopedia had been completed. I cannot close this part of my 

 preface, however, without making a brief record of the work that the national 

 Department of Agricultui'e is doing in the introducing of new agricultural and 

 horticultural plants, for the enterprise there under way is probably the most 

 distinct and methodical effort now making to enrich our cultivated flora. I 

 have asked Mr. David Fairchild, the agricultural explorer in charge of foreign 

 explorations, to make a report on this work; and his statement now follows: 



"The government Department of Agriculture has an organized office for 

 the introduction of new plants. This office, called the Office of Seed and 

 Plant Introduction and Distribution, has a corps of botanists, agricultural 

 explorers, plant distributors, plant propagators, record clerks, field aids and a 

 photographer, who are engaged in the work of discovering, in different parts of 

 the world, new and valuable plants, and of importing these into America and 

 placing them in the hands of trained experimenters throughout the country. 



"Since its organization in 1897 under the direction of the writer, this office 

 has grown, and become a prominent feature of the Departmental work. 

 Although the very limited funds appropriated by Congress have made impos- 

 sible a proper working out of a comprehensive plan of Government Plant 

 Introduction for the whole country, much has been done by those to whom the 

 work has been successively entrusted, — Mr. O. F. Cook, Mr. Jared G. Smith, 



