UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



INVENTORY No. 79 



Washington, D. C. T Issued March, 1927 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN PLANT INTRO- 

 DUCTION, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, DURING THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 

 1 TO JUNE 30, 1924 (S. P. I. NOS. 58931 TO 60956) 



CONTENTS Page 



Introductory statement •_ 1 



Inventory _ 3 



Index of common and scientific names 74 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 



During the period covered by this, the sevent} T -ninth, Inventory of Seeds and 

 Plants Imported, the actual number of introductions was much greater than for 

 any similar period in the past. This was due largely to the fact that there were 

 four agricultural exploring expeditions in the field in the latter part of 1923 and 

 early in 1924, and the combined efforts of these in obtaining plant material were 

 unusually successful. 



Working as a collaborator of this office, under the direction of the National 

 Geographic Society of Washington, D. C, Joseph L. Rock continued to carry 

 on botanical explorations in the Province of Yunnan, southwestern China, from 

 which region he has sent so much of interest during the preceding few years. 

 The collections made by Mr. Rock, which arrived in Washington in the spring 

 of 1924, were generally similar to those made previously in the same region, 

 except that a remarkable series of rhododendrons, numbering nearly 500 different 

 species, many as yet unidentified, was included. Many of these rhododendrons, 

 as well as the primroses, delphiniums, gentians, and barberries obtained by Mr. 

 Rock, promise to be valuable ornamentals for parts of the United States with 

 climatic conditions generally similar to those of Yunnan. 



While continuing his search for promising types of barley for the use of plant 

 breeders in the United States, H. V. Harlan/of the Office of Cereal Crops and 

 Diseases, journeyed through Abyssinia and Egypt. As a result of his visit to 

 these countries a number of barley strains were collected (Hordeum spp., Nos. 

 60525 to 60551, 60675 to 60701), an interesting series of sorghums (Holcus 

 sorghum, Nos. 60492 to 60524), and also local strains of oats, wheat, cotton, 

 flax, peas, beans, and a number of forage grasses. 



H. L. Shantz, of the Office of Plant Geography and Physiology, traveled 

 through East Africa in 1924 for the African Educational Commission, under the 

 auspices of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. In French Somaliland, Uganda, and Kenya, 

 Doctor Shantz collected seeds of a large number of miscellaneous plants of 

 economic interest, such as native grasses, cereals, cotton, and leguminous forage 

 plants. 



Fred D. Richey, of the Office of Cereal Crops and Diseases, and Prof. R. A. 

 Emerson, of Cornell University, spent over three months in southern and western 

 South America searching for varieties of corn likely to succeed in regions of low 



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