October 30, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



619 



our edible cherries belong, describes 119 

 species, many of them but recently col- 

 lected by Wilson in Asia. There are 

 enough hybrids between species to indicate 

 that cultivated cherries will some time be 

 as diversified as plums and with quite as 

 much advantage to the fruit. 



"Webber's and Swingle 's work in breeding 

 hardy citrus fruits; blight-resisting pears 

 as a result of crossing Pynis communis and 

 Pyrus sinensis; Burbank's spectacular hy- 

 brid creations; the diversity of types of 

 tomatoes, potatoes, egg-plant, peppers, 

 beans, cucurbits and other vegetables, not 

 to mention roses, chrysanthemums, orchids 

 and innumerable flowers, suggest the pos- 

 sibilities of hybridization. We have not 

 done what lies within our reach in crossing 

 cereals — corn, wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat, 

 the last especially, remain yet to be 

 touched by the magic wand of hybridiza- 

 tion. Hybrid walnuts, chestnuts, hickories 

 and oaks, promise a wonderful improve- 

 ment in nuts. 



Truth is we do not know how much nor 

 what material we have to work with in 

 many of the group of plants I have named, 

 lending color to the saying that the plants 

 with which man has most to do and which 

 render him greatest service are those which 

 the botanists know least. This brings me 

 to the last division of my subject. 



Nothing is more certain than that we are 

 at the beginning of a most fertile period 

 in the introduction of new and the improve- 

 ment of old food-plants. Yet agricultural 

 institutions are most illy prepared to take 

 part in the movement. "Art is long and 

 time is fleeting," can be said of no human 

 effort more truly than of the improvement 

 of plants, and haste should be made for 

 better preparation. Looking over the mate- 

 rial that is usable in agricultural institu- 

 tions, it seems that we are sadly lacking in 

 the wherewithal upon which to begin. It 



is indispensable for effective work that we 

 have an abundance of material and that 

 we know well the plants with which we are 

 to work. 



How may the material be had? We are 

 fortunate in the United States in having 

 the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Intro- 

 duction of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture for the importation of for- 

 eign plants. This office has effective ma- 

 chinery for the work. It maintains agri- 

 cultural explorers in foreign countries. It 

 is in direct contact with the agricultural 

 institutions of other countries as well as 

 with plant-collectors, explorers, consuls, 

 officers of other countries and missionaries. 

 Through these agents it can reach the 

 uttermost parts of the world. Moreover, it 

 has trained men to identify, to inventory, 

 to propagate and to distribute foreign 

 plants. This office can better meet quaran- 

 tine regulations than can private experi- 

 menters or state institutions. All inter- 

 ested in foreign plants ought to work in 

 cooperation with the Office of Foreign Seed 

 and Plant Introduction of the Department 

 of Agriculture. 



To be used advantageously material must 

 be near at hand. This means that there 

 must be botanic gardens. There should be 

 in every distinct agricultural region of the 

 country a garden where may be found the 

 food plants of the world suitable for the 

 region. It is strange that in the lavish 

 expenditure of state and federal money in 

 the agricultural institutions of the land, 

 that so little has been done to establish and 

 maintain comprehensive plantations of 

 economic plants. Now that the ameliorar 

 tion of plants is a part of the work of agri- 

 cultural colleges and stations it would seem 

 that the establishment of such gardens is 

 imperative. True, there are botanic gar- 

 dens, but the museum idea is dominant in 

 most of them — they contain the curiosities 

 of the vegetable kingdom, or they show the 



