2 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED 



• 



The growing volume of the selections which are being made by foreign plant 

 breeders indicates a greater appreciation on the part of governments of the value 

 of plant varieties in the agriculture of their countries. 



The special explorations made by Dr. H. V. Harlan through North Africa, 

 extending into India, in search of certain useful plant characters, which through 

 sporting or otherwise have made their appearance in the barley fields of these 

 regions, mark, it is believed, a turning point in the development of plant intro- 

 duction and plant breeding alike. They attract attention to the value of a 

 character, such as that of silkiness instead of harshness of awns, as a desirable 

 thing to introduce and incorporate into American barleys through crossing. In 

 the beginning new varieties were introduced because they might themselves be 

 better than those we had. Varieties are now being introduced which are known 

 to be inferior to those already grown in all but perhaps one or two characters, 

 for the purpose of incorporating these superior characters into new and superior 

 strains. Doctor Harlan's collections, a few of which appear in this inventory, 

 will be found described under Nos. 57042 to 57074 and 57612 to 57664 (which 

 include what is reported to be the original Mariout barley that has been so 

 successful in America) . 



Of the other introductions in this seventy-fifth inventory, the following appear 

 unusually interesting to the writer : 



Rock's wild apple from the Likiang Snow Range of Yunnan, Malus yunnanensis 

 (No. 57225), which grows at altitudes of 10,000 feet among the rocks on the 

 borderland of Tibet and bears large corymbs of yellow and red fruits about an 

 inch in diameter, and his fragrant-scented rich-pink-flowered Luculia (No. 56825) 

 which he found on the Shweli-Salwin Divide in Yunnan and that he declares is 

 "one of the handsomest shrubs of which I know," with salver-shaped flowers 

 2 inches across; Matsuda's three wild varieties of the Japanese persimmon, or 

 kaki, from the mountains of Kyusiu Island, Japan, one of which may prove to 

 be the wished-for ideal stock for the fine cultivated varieties now assuming rapid 

 commercial importance (Diospyros kaki; Nos. 56831 to 56833); Mundy's "per- 

 ennial Sudan grass," a variety which volunteers readily from seed, especially on 

 cultivated land, and is a form of Sorghum arundinaceum (No. 56801) ; Roberts's 

 long, fleshy cucumber (Cucumis sativus; No. 56805) from the Malwa Plateau of 

 Rajputana, India, which is grown there in the hot rainy season and may prove 

 adapted to cultivation in our Southern States in the summer; the eight varieties 

 of bor, or Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana; Nos. 56812 to 56819), sent in by 

 G. S. Cheema from Poona, India, a species that has already become naturalized 

 in southern Florida through the efforts of this office and is being used as a stewed 

 fruit by a number of people; Nilsson's mutation of the ordinary European aspen 

 Populus tremula (Nos. 56871 and 56872), which was found in the woods of western 

 Sweden (it is fastigiate, resembling the Lombardy poplar, and may prove useful 

 for dooryards) ; Cooper's seed of the beautiful yellow flowering shrub, Prinsepia 

 sinensis (No. 57087), from the mountains back of Patung, Hupeh. The early- 

 flowering hardy character of this Chinese shrub, as Professor Sargent has already 

 pointed out, will make it popular throughout the North Atlantic States, where 

 it is hardy. The handsome deep-blue flowering Exacum zeylanicum macranthum 

 (No. 57260), relative of our gentian, which Frank B. Noyes, of Washington, 

 brought back from the mountains of Ceylon, may thrive in Florida and southern 

 California. The supply of seeds of the grumichama of Brazil, Eugenia dombeyi 

 (No. 57270), which Willis T. Pope sent from Honolulu, is of interest because 

 this highly ornamental new fruiting shrub has proved hardy in southern Florida, 

 and its cherrylike fruits are sure to be appreciated by those who can grow it. 

 Johansen's Triplaris cumingiana (No. 57092), a striking ornamental tree from 

 the Isthmus of Panama, deserves a place in the parks of the tropical world. 

 A remarkable collection of seeds of hardy trees and shrubs presented by A. D. 

 Woeikoff, director of the experimental farm at Echo, Manchuria, and including 

 such rare species as Betula davurica (No. 57278), Acanthopanaz senticosum (No. 

 57274), Euonymus hamiltonianus (No. 57281), Prunus maackii (No. 57310), Tilia 

 amurensis (No. 57345), T. mandshurica (No. 57346), Viburnum burejaeticum 

 (No. 57366), and Prinsepia sinensis (No. 57309), can not fail to be valuable in 

 the ornamental plantings of the parks and dooryards in the Northwest. 



As during the years past, the work of determination of the names of the various 

 species introduced has been done by H. C. Skeels. The descriptive notes have 

 been prepared by Paul Russell, who has had general supervision of this inventory. 



David Fairchild, 

 Senior Agricultural Explorer in Charge, 



Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, 

 Washington, D. C, May 25, 1925. 



