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INVENTORY OF FOREIGN SEEDS AND PLANTS. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This inventory or catalogue of seeds and plants includes a number 

 of exceptionally valuable items collected by the Agricultural Explorers 

 of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. There is an interest- 

 ing and valuable series of economic plants of the most varied uses 

 procured by the Hon. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago, assisted by Mr. 

 David G. Fairchild. Mr. W. T. Swingle has continued his work in 

 Algeria, Sicily, and Turkey, and this list contains many of his impor- 

 tations. There are also a number of donations from various sources, 

 and a few seeds purchased directly from the growers. 



The following importations represent perhaps the most valuable 

 of the many interesting novelties here described: Mr. Swingle's col- 

 lection of improved varieties of the date palm, procured in Algeria; 

 a collection of spineless cacti from the Argentine Republic secured 

 by Messrs. Lathrop and Fairchild, which may become valuable forage 

 plants in the arid Southwest; genge clover, a leguminous forage crop and 

 green manure which is grown in the rice fields of Japan as a winter 

 soil cover and fertilizer; a collection of broad beans from England, this 

 vegetable being practically unknown in the United States, although 

 extensively used in Europe and on the Continent; a new seedless raisin 

 grape from Italy for the raisin growers of California and Arizona; a 

 little sample of wheat from Peru, donated by Dr. Cisneros, Secretary 

 of the National Agricultural Societ} r of Lima, a variety which was 

 grown at an altitude of over 11,000 feet in the Andes, and which may 

 prove both interesting and valuable in some locality in the Rock}" 

 Mountains; a large number of desert forage plants and saltbushes from 

 an extremely arid region in the Northern Territory of South Aus- 

 tralia; the Kirkagatch muskmelon, said to be one of the finest sorts 

 grown in Asia Minor; Jannovitch cotton, a new Egyptian strain, 

 secured in sufficient quantity for an extensive distribution; and the 

 Khiva winter muskmelon, which was grown in Utah from seed orig- 

 inally imported from Khiva by Prof. N. E. Hansen. 



Other collections of interest are: A new macaroni wheat from Chili; 

 Mr. Swingle's extensive collections of economic plants from Algeria, 



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