INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY 

 THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRO- 

 DUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM NOVEMBER 1 

 TO DECEMBER 81, 1919 (NO. 61; NOS. 48427 TO 

 49123). 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



This inventory describes a wealth of new plants. There are more 

 than 25 new fruits included in it, more than 10 striking new timber 

 trees, 4 street or windbreak trees, 8 new forage plants, 5 new cereals, 

 2 drug plants, 4 new vegetables, and more than 125 new ornamental 

 trees, shrubs, or plants. The expense of propagating these and of 

 finding people who are interested in growing them is one which only 

 those who see the thousands of seedlings coming up can appreciate. 

 The knowledge that the success of a single one of them may in time 

 pay for all the trouble and expense turns the trouble of taking care 

 of them into a romance of real fascination. 



The maruka grass {Echinochloa stagnina. No. 48427) of the Phil- 

 ippines for trial on overflowed lands on the Everglades of Florida 

 is worth emphasizing. 



Mr. J. Burtt Davy collected for us, during a short expedition into 

 the region of the Belgian Kongo and Rhodesia, seeds of a remarkable 

 number of interesting economic plants (Xos. 48428 to 48503), among 

 which should be mentioned the knob thorn {Acacia pollens^ No. 

 48428, one of the most valuable hardwood trees of the Transvaal ; the 

 mootungulu (Amomiom sp., Xo. 48433), an edible- fruited plant re- 

 lated to the ginger; the kifumbe {Bauhinia reticulata, No. 48437), 

 the pods of which are used for fodder; the mookasje {Diospyros 

 senegalemis, No. 48454), a persimmon from the Belgian Kongo; the 

 noxa tree {Parinarl mobola, Xo. 48469), a handsome ornamental 

 and useful tree of the Eosacese, whose leaves are dark green above 

 and snowy white below and whose edible fruits, the size of a small 

 peach, are produced in such abundance that at the time of ripening 

 a large proportion of the native population is sustained almost 

 exclusively on them; and various cultivated forms of Uapaca (Nos. 

 48490 to 48494) , a genus of Euphorbiacese, bearing edible fruits which 

 are given native names by the inhabitants of the Kongo. 



The yama-momo of Japan or yang mei of China {Myrica rubra, 

 No. 48504) is one of the most showy of table fruits, and the fact that 

 specimens of it are growing at Chico, Del Monte, and Berkeley, Calif., 



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