16 



of oats, auci 3 species or 70 varieties of barley, collected from Germany, 

 France, Eussia (one variety of Eiissiau wheat, the Taganrog, proving 

 especially valuable), Hungary, Greece, Italy, India, Australia, Japan, 

 and Xorth America.* 



The small-grained naked oat {Arena nuda), introduced from China, 

 has been crossed with Tartarian, Potato, and other varieties of the 

 common oat and a variety of large-grained naked oat resulted, which 

 Garton Bros, consider among their most valuable productions.! 



The Phylloxera-resistant hybrid grape, Golden Clairette, which has 

 attracted the attention of French vineyardists as possibly offering a 

 simpler solution of that difficult problem than the use of Americau 

 stocks, was a cross between the variety Aramon of the European grai^e 

 Tit is vinifera and an American species Yitis rupestris.X 



The promising h^^brids lately produced by Swingle and Webber 

 between the hardy Citrus trifoUata and the ordinary orange, which 

 may quite possibly extend uorthward materially the orange-growing 

 belt of the Southern States, would not have been i)ossible had not the 

 former been introduced from Japan and established as a hardy orna- 

 mental. § 



The introduction of the Chinese sand pear [Fyrus sinensis), in itself 

 a purely ornamental species, bearing fruit that is scarcel^^ edible, has 

 resulted in the origination of the Kieffer and Le Gonte varieties, which 

 have revolutionized pear culture in the Southeru United States. 



The importance of assembling in gardens and arboreta throughout 

 America collections of exotic species, particularly such as are related 

 to those from which our cultivated plants have sprung, can hardly be 

 overestimated; examples pointing to its desirability could be multiplied 

 almost indeSnitely. The work of plant breeding is, in fact, dependent 

 in a measure upon the presence of such exotic ])lants. It is not meant 

 by this to assemble such immense collections irrespective of their rela- 

 tionship with our cultivated crops as are represented by the great 

 majoi^ity of botanic gardens of Europe. These have their place and 

 should form a part of every universit\^ equipment, but are generally of 

 little use to the plant breeder. The botanic garden is complete when 

 it possesses one or two specimens of each species, but a garden for 

 economic work should i)0ssess many species, secured from as many 

 localities as possible, and a collection of varieties which may prove of 

 more importance than the collection of different species. 



To take a single example, the genus Vaecinium, which contains the 

 ordinary cranberry and blueberry, still remains practically untouched 



* McAlpine, A. X. Eaising New Breeds of Cereals, in Traus. Higblaud and Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland, Series 5, Vol. VI, 1894, pp. 145-148. 



t Carrutlicrs. William. Cross Fertilization of Cereals (Jour. Eoyal Ag. Soc. of 

 England, Third Series, vol. 4, part IV, p. 701). 



t Swingle, W. T., and Webber, II. J. Hybrids and their Utilization in Plant 

 Breeding, in U. S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook, 1897, p. 398. 



$ Swingle and Webber, 1. c., p. 415. 



