
          PLANT INTRODUCTIONS.

Experimenters will please read carefully this Introductory
Note before sending in their requests for plant material.

This, the Fifteenth Annual List of Plant Introductions, contains
descriptions of many new and rare plants, not yet widely tested in this
country. The available information concerning some of them is meager, and
it is therefore impossible to speak with assurance regarding their value,
their cultural requirements, and their adaptability to the various climates
and soils of the United States.

These plants have been imported because of some direct or indirect
use which, it is believed, can be made of them. They are first placed at
the disposal of the experts engaged in plant breeding, crop acclimatization,
and horticultural investigations generally in the United States Department
of Agriculture and the State Experiment Stations. Many of them have been
grown in sufficient quantity, however, so that they can be distributed to
private experimenters who have the facilities to test them carefully. The
List is therefore sent to those who have qualified as Experimenters with
the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction, and who have indicated a willingness 
to care for material sent them.

Accompanying this Annual List are complete Check Lists showing all
seeds and plants available for distribution at the several Plant Introduction Gardens during the season 1926-27, and the Garden from which available.
Applicants for material should fill out all blanks at the top of the Check
List of each garden from which they request plants, place a mark to the left
of the S.P.I. (Seed and Plant Introduction) number of each plant desired,
and return the lists promptly to this Office.

It should be distinctly understood that the Office does not agree
to supply all the plants requested. The object of the Annual List and 
the Check Lists is to place experimental material where it is thought the
chances of success are best; to this end the experts of the Office will
allot the available number of plants to those experimenters whose location
and facilities seem most suitable, having in mind, at the same time, the
order of receipt of the returned Check Lists, and giving preference to
those which arrive first.

The shipping season extends, as a rule, from December first to April
first. Because of the large quantity of plants which must be handled, it
is difficult for the Office to single out individual requests and ship them
at a certain date; where there are, however, valid reasons for requesting
that material be sent at a specified time, every effort will be made to
meet the requests.

These plants are placed in the hands of experimenters vdth the
understanding that reports on their behavior will be sent to this Office
from time to time. It is particularly desired that reports be sent to this
Office regarding the flowering, fruiting, hardiness, utilization and other
interesting features of plants which have been sent for trial; and it is
        