INVENTORY OF FOREIGN SEEDS AND PLANTS. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



The present inventory or catalogue of seeds and plants includes the 

 collections of the agricultural explorers of the Section of Seed and 

 Plant Introduction, as well as a large number of donations from mis- 

 cellaneous sources. There are a series of new and interesting vege- 

 tables, tield crops, ornamentals, and forage plants secured by Mr. 

 Walter T. Swingle in France, Algeria, and Asia Minor. Another 

 important exploration was that conducted by Mr. Mark A. Carleton, 

 an assistant in the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology. 

 The wheats and other cereals were published in Inventory No. 4, but 

 notices of many of Mr. Carleton's miscellaneous importations are 

 printed here for the first time. The fruits and ornamentals collected 

 by Dr. Seaton A. Knapp in Japan are here listed, together with a 

 number of Chinese .seeds from the Yangtze Valley, presented b} T Mr. 

 G. D. Brill, of Wuchang. Perhaps the most important items are the 

 series of tropical and subtropical seeds and plants secured through 

 the indefatigable efforts of Hon. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago. Mr. 

 Lathrop, accompanied by Mr. David G. Fairchild, formerly in charge 

 of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction, conducted at his own 

 expense an extended exploration through the West Indies, Venezuela, 

 Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, and procured many 

 extremely valuable seeds and plants, some of which had never been 

 previously introduced into this country. 



The publication of this list has been considerably belated, and many 

 of the numbers are now entirely exhausted. Nevertheless the notes 

 in regard to such will undoubtedly prove an assistance to agricultural 

 experimenters in many lines. Records are kept of the source and 

 origin of each item listed. It will therefore be possible, in most 

 instances, to obtain an additional quantity, at least for the use of work- 

 ers at the agricultural experiment stations, provided there is sufficient 

 and justifiable demand for another importation. 



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