13 The Subject 



This inventory contains all the leading vegetable-garden 

 plants of the world, and a good number of those of minor 

 importance. It suggests the variety and wealth of the 

 field in plant materials. It would run into many hun- 

 dreds more if a complete list were attempted. In 1889, 

 Sturtevant (Agric. Sci. iii: 174-8) classified 1,070 species 

 of cultivated food plants, and added that his notes include 

 4,333 species of edible plants in 1,353 genera and 170 fam- 

 ilies.* These plants comprise all classes, — ^grains, fruits, 

 vegetables and others. Undoubtedly these numbers could 

 now be much increased. 



In the foregoing lists are 347 entries, of which 114 are 

 leaf vegetables, 59 root vegetables, and 74 fruit vegetables. 

 It displays a fascinating field for labor and study. Here 

 are seeds of unimagined forms, oddities in germination, 

 growths to fix the attention, flowers and fruits represent- 

 ing the vast range of the vegetable kingdom, products in 

 which one may take a personal pride. The number of 

 domesticated forms is sumless, and yet the opportunity for 

 plant-breeding is without end. Who knows the fruits of 

 even the common vegetables? Who can describe accu- 

 rately even one of the plants, as the botanist would de- 

 scribe it if he had his material properly preserved before 

 him? Where are the herbaria and the museums in which 

 the common things, to say nothing of the uncommon ones, 

 are adequately collected? Plant-growing is so commer- 

 cialized that we are tempted to give most of our atten- 

 tion to the inechanical and business aspects of the subject, 

 losing our skill as plantsmen. But whatever the develop- 



*See also the recent extensive volume issued by the N. Y. Agric. Ex- 

 per. Station (Geneva), called "Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants." 



