development of this new Nation. From the mid-1860's on, unlike the pre- 

 Civil War years, outstanding advances were made in the introduction and 

 distribution of new plants throughout the United States by such men as 

 William Saunders, a former Superintendent of Gardens and Grounds for 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (6). 



In 1897 James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture — known to many as 

 "Tama Jim" — brought a refreshing interest and direction to the 

 Department's role in the area of plant introduction (fig. 3). Under his 

 leadership, the Department began to hire additional specialists in the var- 

 ious areas of the agricultural sciences. Wilson intended to work towards 

 the day when the United States would be agriculturally self-sufficient. 

 Under his administration, seed distribution would become an important 

 factor in efforts to achieve this goal. Plant explorers would be sent all 

 over the world in search of new and hopefully useful kinds of seed plants 

 (7). 



Secretary Wilson wasted little time in setting in motion the necessary 

 machinery to achieve his goals. In 1898, to further these objectives, he 

 established the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, headed by 

 David Fairchild, a plant explorer. Fairchild subsequently contributed 

 much to the introduction of the Japanese flowering cherry tree into the 

 United States. 



Before 1897, the Department's scientists were also naturally concerned 

 with the large number of foreign insect pests and diseases and their poten- 

 tially detrimental effects upon an expanding but, as yet, unmonitored 

 system of plant introduction. Under Wilson's leadership, however, sci- 

 entists Charles L. Marlatt and Leland O. Howard and staff assistants such 

 as Flora W. Patterson were supported in their efforts to obtain a national 

 plant quarantine law to control this threat to American agriculture. By 

 1906, the Department's Bureau of Plant Industry began to develop its 

 own inspection process for plant materials imported by the Bureau. This 

 process entailed not only fumigating but also destroying imported plants 

 when necessary (8). The increasing interest in the introduction of Japanese 

 cherry trees to the Washington, D.C., area would ultimately test the 

 validity of the Department's inspection process. 



In the early part of the 20th century, a few individuals in the Wash- 

 ington, D.C., area were actively engaged in promoting the introduction of 

 the Japanese flowering cherry trees into this country. As early as 1903, 

 through the efforts of David Fairchild and Barbour Lathrop, the 

 Department's Office of Foreign Plant Introduction of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry was involved in introducing 30 named varieties of cherry trees 

 into the United States (9 ). In addition, Fairchild on a trip to Japan in 

 1902 was so impressed with the picturesque beauty of the cherry trees 

 lining the country's streets and waterways that he was determined to have 

 these trees on property of his own someday. In time, he and his wife, 

 Marian Bell, bought a lovely tract of forested land in Chevy Chase, Md., 



