INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED 

 BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT 

 INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM 

 APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1913 (NO. 35; NOS. 35136 TO 

 35666). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



It has been customary ever since these inventories were first begun 

 in 1898 to review briefly the field work accomphshed by explorers of 

 the ofiice during the period covered by the inventory and to point 

 out some of the more interesting new plants which are described in it. 



Any system, even a bad one, comes to have a certain historical 

 value if it is maintained through a period of years. This one, which 

 has as its object the recording of aU department introductions of 

 foreign plants, has now been in operation for 17 years, and to-day it 

 win be an easy matter to trac« any one of the new plants brought in 

 either to its early death or to its success in some part of the country. 

 The discovery of one of the department introductions as a large tree, 

 for example, in some out-of-the-way part of the country can easily be 

 traced back to the card record, which will show when it was sent out 

 for trial and to what experimenter, and the printed note about it in 

 one of these inventories will give the clue to its foreign origin. The 

 constant use of these inventories by field experimenters has fuUy 

 justified the expenditure necessary in order to bring about their 

 pubhcation, and while in the multigraphed advance sheets, called 

 "Plant Immigrants," there appears from time to time mention of 

 the apparently most important plant collections received, the presence 

 of these printed inventories in tHe hbraries of the country makes it 

 possible to look up and find out the origin of any new plant intro- 

 duced by the Government from any part of the world. 



With the growing vigilance to prevent the introduction of new 

 plant parasites, this system has appeared to be distinctly advanta- 

 geous and can be safely recomimended as a continuing pohcy. Should 

 a parasite shp in through quarantine and be later discovered, practi- 

 cally every plant of that mtroduction could be located. Previous 

 to its adoption many interesting new plants were brought in whose 



Note.— This bulletin is a record of new or little-known seeds or plants procured mostly from abroad. It 

 is intended for distribution to agricultural experiment stations and the more important private cooperators. 



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