﻿INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY 

 THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT IN- 

 TRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM JANU- 

 ARY 1 TO MARCH 31, 1917 (NO. 50; NOS. 43980 TO 

 44445). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



When the war broke out it was expected by many that interest 

 in new plants would suffer a serious setback. That the contrary is 

 true is the conviction forced upon the writer from watching the 

 correspondence which passes over his desk. The hunt for substitutes 

 has served to counterbalance in a measure the effect of the curtail- 

 ment of the funds of amateur and official experimenters, and the 

 spectacle of our dependence upon foreign raw plant materials has 

 been in the nature of a revelation to millions of people. That 

 the world has scattered over it enthusiastic pioneers who see pos- 

 sibilities in plants which are now obscure, this inventory is evidence, 

 for it describes plants sent in by such pioneers during the third year 

 of the war from 41 different foreign countries or separate islands. 

 While the total number for the three months covered is not so great 

 as that during the similar period in 1913, the fact must be taken 

 into account that only two explorers of the office were in the field, 

 viz, Frank N. Meyer, in central China, and Wilson Popenoe, in 

 Guatemala. 



Hosts of the plants have been sent in by correspondents, many of 

 them foreigners, who recognize, as Ave do, that the area of plant 

 culture can not be confined by national boundaries, but is limited 

 only by the natural barriers of soil, climate, and human intelligence. 

 In the world to-day there is no large plant monopoly which depends 

 for its maintenance upon the prohibition of the export of the seeds 

 of the plant on which it is founded. Where the plants can grow to 

 perfection and the requisite human intelligence is present and other 

 economic factors are favorable, there plant industries will be built 

 up and maintained so long as the factors of quality and the cost of 

 production and transportation remain favorable and fashion does 

 not change. 



Many of the plants herein recorded are in the nature of gifts to 

 America by foreign countries, and it is with especial pleasure that 

 we acknowledge officially the debt of gratitude, realizing fully that, 



