B. P. I.— 379. 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED DURING THE 

 PERIOD FROM JULY, 1906, TO DECEMBER 31. 

 1907: INVENTORY NO. 13; NOS. 19058 TO 21730. 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This inventory, the thirteenth of the series which was begun in 

 1898, has been prepared under the direct supervision of Mr. Walter 

 Fischer. It brings the total number of introduced plants up to 21,730 

 and includes 2,672 numbers, covering a period of eighteen months. 



A feature of the work of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction 

 which is growing rapidly and which appears in this inventory is the 

 introduction of small quantities of seeds and plants in response to 

 requests of plant breeders who are at work on particular crops. This 

 feature opens up the whole world as a new field to be explored, for 

 there are hosts of wild forms which are related to our cultivated fruits 

 and cereals and which the plant breeder needs to mix in with his 

 American forms to get new combinations of valuable characters. 



For example, the inventory includes seeds of the wild beet of Sicily 

 for the sugar-beet breeder; a wild asparagus from Japan, another 

 from Cape Town, and a third from southern France for the asparagus 

 breeders of the country ; wild rhubarbs from China and France ; wild 

 plums from Siberia and north China; wild blackberries, raspberries, 

 and strawberries from China; wild currants from Korea; a wild 

 pyrus from Norway ; a collection of wild apples and pears from vari- 

 ous parts of the world, the gift of the Arnold Arboretum; wild 

 apricots from China; a wild rose from north China; a native wild 

 timothy from Siberia; the Solanum commersoni, a wild wet-land 

 potato from Uruguay, and a native wild cherry from Korea. All of 

 these things are already in the hands of plant breeders, who will dis- 

 cover what they have of value in them for the production of new and 

 valuable forms for general cultivation. 



This work for the breeders is just beginning. It is longer in bring- 

 ing in financial results to the country than the introduction of a 

 superior strain of cereal or fruit, but it lies at the bottom of the 

 origination of entirely new things whose possibilities are now quite 

 unknown, and, judging by the experience of the past, it is safe to pre- 

 dict that a single one of these new forms may repay to the farmers or 

 fruit growers of the country hundreds of times what their introduc- 



5 . 



