INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED 

 BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT 

 INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM 

 APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1912 (NO. 31 ; NOS. 33279 

 TO 34092). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 



This is the first inventory of a new series, and the occasion furnishes 

 an opportunity to review briefly the history of these inventories. 



The first of the thirty inventories which have been pubUshed was 

 designed by Mr. O. F. Cook, who saw the need for it during the time 

 in which he had charge of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction 

 in 1899. The correctness of his foresight has been amply proved. 

 The series of inventories has developed into a work of great value in 

 its bearing on the rapidly developing agriculture of this country. 

 Nowhere else, so far as known, is there an authentic record of the 

 introduction into a country of 30,000 plant importations from various 

 parts of the world. 



The early uiventories contained scarcely more than a bare record 

 of the place of collection, the date, the name of the plant, and the 

 collector, but this was largely due to the fact that the early introduc- 

 tions sent in were accompanied by very brief notes. With the arrival 

 of the material from the Lathrop-Fairchild expedition, of Mr. W. T. 

 Swingle's collections from the Mediterranean region, and of Mr. M. A. 

 Carleton's material from Russia, the inventory first began to take on 

 importance as a work on economic botany, inasmuch as the original 

 observations of the collectors, who were termed " agricultural 

 explorers" at Mr. Cook's suggestion, were printed in full. It is the 

 observations fresh from the field which form one of the most valuable 

 features of this publication. 



Until 1908 the inventories were published at irregular intervals 

 and were extremely variable in size, but since that year they have 

 been issued quarterly, each number covering the introductions of three 

 months. The inventories prior to No. 14, published in 1908, recorded 

 the names of the plants or seeds received in the form in which they were 

 given by the explorer or correspondent, but with the development 

 in 1908 of facilities for the identification of the seeds sent in, through 

 cooperation with the Office of Taxonomic and Range Investigations, 

 an attempt was made to correct the nomenclature of the imported 



