No. 4.] GARDEN SEEDS. 43 



for 1885, gives a list of 585 varietal names of lettuce, 257 

 of which were foreign ones not used in this country, where 

 the remaining 328 were in more or less common use. He 

 found that these 328 names stood for not more than 87 dis- 

 tinct types, and many of these were so similar that they 

 might easily be developed by a few years' selection from the 

 same stock. Bulletin No. 09, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, issued in 1904, 

 nine years later, gives 446 distinct varietal names, but 70 of 

 which are identical with those given by Goff ; and the author 

 describes 114 sorts as distinct, of which only 28 were also 

 described by Goff under the same name, though there is not 

 more than a score of descriptions in the latter bulletin which 

 were essentially different from some one given in the first. 

 Of these 114 sorts described in the latter bulletin as distinct, 

 many arc quite similar, showing no greater difference than 

 might easily be developed in a few years' selection from the 

 same stock. In counting the number of varietal names in 

 both bulletins every difference in names was counted as dis- 

 tinct, such as Early and Extra Early, Giant and Mammoth, 

 Smith's Eclipse and Jones's Eclipse, etc. ; and it is probable 

 that in some cases names so counted as distinct were not in- 

 tended by the users to be so regarded, but it was difficult to 

 avoid this, for in many cases snch differences as Early and 

 Extra Early were evidently intended to stand for material dif- 

 ferences in type. Again, Goff may not have listed some names 

 which were actually in use in his time, and were included in 

 the later list; but, making ample allowance for all such cases, 

 we have in the later bulletin at least 150 names which were 

 not in the first in any form, and which we may reasonably 

 regard as entirely new ones introduced during the nine years 

 which elapsed between the publication of the two bulletins. 

 Now, a seed grower who is exceptionally familiar with 

 varieties of lettuce as now grown in America, and annually 

 grows many tons of lettuce seed, has stated that he did not 

 believe there were more than 25 really distinct sorts now 

 grown in this country; and we think we are quite justified 

 by the known facts in saying that during the more than two 

 thousand years in which we know distinct varieties of lettuce 



