36 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



have contributed to the pages of this inventory include most of 

 the great horticulturists of the time which is covered by the last 

 decade, the 35,000 descriptions contain a mass of information 

 about our cultivated crops which will in itself be well worth all the 

 money it has cost to print it. Horticulturists are well aware of 

 the neglect which botanists have paid to cultivated plant varieties. 

 Nowhere else are so many of these varietal names recorded from 

 all over the world, often with explanations of their meaning. When 

 one considers how great the financial interests are which depend 

 upon a plant variety, the mere recording of the information as to 

 where these great varieties of the world are to be found is not with- 

 out its value. 



In the actual bringing in from foreign countries of over 30,000 

 plant strains, varieties or species much that is valuable has been 

 learned. The best methods of packing and shipping, the easiest 

 methods of note taking and labelling, and the quickest, safest but 

 surest methods of ascertaining whether the new seeds or plants 

 were clean of weeds or fungus pests or insect enemies. No factor 

 has been greater in developing a clear policy with regard to plant 

 quarantine than this constant stream of new plants coming into 

 Washington. The alfalfa seed had dodder in it and months of 

 experimenting were spent in devising ways of cleaning it. New 

 weevils were found in the beans and peas, and sure, safe methods 

 had to be devised to destroy them. A scale insect new to science 

 was found infecting the base of the leaves of our date palms and a 

 method of paring the offshoot to get rid of it was devised. New 

 smut fungi attacked our bamboos and had to be gotten rid of, new 

 rots appeared in our aroids and we had to learn how to store them. 

 In short, the examination which it has been deemed necessary to 

 subject all our seeds and plants to has opened up a field of research 

 in the study of foreign plant diseases which we are likely to introduce 

 into America. A glimpse at the plant diseases of the world has 

 been afforded by these thousands of new plants brought in. 



In using as a great testing field the whole country it was necessary 

 to have a chronological record of everything sent out in order that 

 years hence, as trees grew tall and owners died or memory failed, 

 some clew at least would still remain which would enable those 

 coming after to determine where the strange tree came from. 



