
          PLANT INTRODUCTIONS

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

THIS, the Twelfth 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 sufficent 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 Seed and 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 1923-24. Applicants for material 
should fill out all blanks on the first sheet accompanying the Check 
Lists, 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 fifteenth.

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 request.

These plants are placed in the hands of experimenters with the understanding that they will be given unusual attention, and that reports 
on their behavior will be sent to this Office from time to time. Not 
only have their introduction and propagation cost a great deal of money,
        