INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY 

 THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT IN- 

 TRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 

 1 TO JUNE 30, 19U (NO. 39 ; NOS. 37647 TO 38665). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This inventory, which covers the quarter closing just before the 

 outbreak of the European war, is the largest and contains the most 

 variedly interesting plant material which has come in during any 

 quarter since the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction was 

 organized in 1898. It describes or lists 1,019 introductions, which is 

 an average of more than 13 for each official working day, and a 

 perusal of the notes will give a good idea of the world-wide oper- 

 ations of this office. It might be interesting to point out that a large 

 amount of the material which is brought in is secured by the oper- 

 ations of an exchange system. During the year, for example, 537 

 shipments of seeds or plants were sent to official and special private 

 experimenters abroad. The office is becoming, in fact, an inter- 

 national office of seed and plant exchange, which, in many instances, 

 has been of as much value to foreign agriculturists as to the Ameri- 

 can farmer. 



To look over such catalogues as this — of a thousand different 

 plants — is, even to experiment-station men, so much of an under- 

 taking that with the first inventory, published in 1898, the custom 

 was established of mentioning in an introductory statement the more 

 apparently promising and interesting introductions described. There 

 are so many which deserve special mention in this one that the writer 

 has attempted a rough classification of them. 



CEREALS. 



From the large number of cereals which have come in for trial 

 or have been gathered for the monographic studies of experimenters 

 with these crops, there might be mentioned the introduction of the 



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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