6 



SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPOETED. 



early history, so to speak, is shrouded in mystery, because nowhere 

 was there recorded in any permanent form the historical account 

 of their first introduction into the country. This system of printed 

 inventories is therefore intended to be an orderly and clear method 

 of making permanently available to the public the record of the 

 introduction of thousands of new and more or less valuable plants 

 which it is hoped will increase the welfare of the country in one way 

 or another. 



In the early days of plant exploration, particularly in Europe, the 

 danger of introducing new parasites with new seeds and plants was 

 not realized, and private firms and wealthy amateurs did a great 

 deal of the work of plant introduction, either as public-spirited men 

 or for profit. To-day, with the rapid increase in our knowledge of 

 the diseases of plants, has come a new responsibility — that of making 

 sure that no dangerous insect parasites or parasitic fungi are intro- 

 duced ^vith the plants. Furthermore, the work of securing new 

 plants has proved on the whole a very unprofitable business to such 

 private firms as have engaged in it, because of the great expense of 

 maintaining explorers in the field and the difficulty of retaining 

 control of a new plant long enough to make much out of it. 



As the researches of the Government experts result in new methods 

 for the disinfection of large quantities of plant material, this conunerce 

 is bound to grow, and it is even conceivable that general inexpensive 

 methods will be discovered by which all kinds of parasitic diseases of 

 plants can be killed on imported material as soon as it arrives in this 

 country, so that only disease-free plant material will leave the 

 quarantine stations of our ports. 



The fragmentary nature of many of the notes in the inventory is 

 to be regretted, but in general it must be said that this is the result 

 of a failure on the part of many who send in material to grasp the 

 plan of plant introduction as a whole ; and since fresh field obser- 

 vations, even though they are incomplete, are more valuable than 

 book knowledge, it has been deemed better to print these impressions 

 fresh from the field than to give abstracts from books on horticul- 

 ture and botany describing the plants. 



There are a number of very interesting new introductions in this 

 inventory, for it covers collections which Mr. Frank N. Meyer, agri- 

 cultural explorer of the Bureau of Plant Industry, made in the Shan- 

 tung Province of China, and some remarkable new potato varieties 

 secured by Mr. W. F. Wight during his trip through southern Chile 

 and Peru. 



Mr. Meyer's collections enumerated in this inventory include a 

 cultivated large-fruited variety of the Chinese haw {Crataegus pinna- 

 tifida), No. 35456, which in Mr. Meyer's opinion deserves the serious 

 consideration of American horticulturists. It is a hardy tree, re- 

 markably drought resistant. The fruit is of good flavor, and from 



