b SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. 



This inventory represents not merely the names of and remarks 

 regarding new plant introductions, but embodies often the notes made 

 at the time of collection by agricultural explorers who have been kept 

 at very considerable expense in the field. In the present case it 

 includes in part the collections made by Prof. H. L. Bolley, of North 

 Dakota, who was sent thru the flax-growing region of Europe in 

 search of the best varieties of flax, especially to find one that was 

 more resistant to the flax rust than those we already have. It covers 

 a portion of the seeds and plants collected by Mr. Ernst A. Bessey 

 during his travels thru a part of the Caucasus, the Crimea, and into 

 Russian Turkestan. It includes a list of valuable new seeds which 

 Hon. Robert P. Skinner very kindly secured in Abyssinia for the 

 Department when sent as commissioner to King Menelik in 1904. 

 The valuable collection of 100 European potato varieties, made by 

 Prof. E. R. Jones, of the University of Vermont, is also included. 

 This inventory includes also the results of Mr. Thomas II. Kearney's 

 explorations in southern Tunis, where he was sent by the Office of 

 Seed and Plant Introduction Investigations to study the date varieties 

 of the Tunisian oases. The collection of date offshoots which Mr. 

 Kearney secured is unique in that it was made after a careful exam- 

 ination of the palms while in full bearing. This is the first time that 

 an agricultural explorer has been given the opportunity to spend the 

 fruiting season in foreign date gardens, and Mr. Kearney's descrip- 

 tions of the varieties collected in Tunis are from actual observation and 

 not from hearsay. Dry land olives , pomegranates, pistaches, spineless 

 opuntias, and drought-resistant fodder crops were also given attention 

 by Mr. Kearney while in this interesting desert region. The collec- 

 tions made by Mr. P. H. Rolfs during his explorations of the vanilla- 

 growing regions of Mexico are chronicled in this inventory, and the 

 vanilla cuttings secured at that time are contributing their share 

 toward the solution of the problem of vanilla culture in Florida. 



A. J. Pieters, 



Botanist in Charge. 



Office of Seed and Plant 



Introduction and Distribution, 



Washington, D. C, August 1, 1906. 



