3 



The new plants Imported by this of- 

 fice of the Department of Agriculture 

 are in most cases so little known to 

 experimenters that their scientific or 

 even common names alone, would convey 

 little idea of their character. To dis- 

 tribute them under a name simply and 

 depend upon the experimenters to look 

 them up in a catalogue entails a burden 

 upon the investigator which often re- 

 sults in his being ignorant at the close 

 of the year of v^hat the new plant is 

 good for. To enable him at any time to 

 refresh his memory as to the use of any 

 one of these introductions, special cel- 

 luloid tags have been devised upon which 

 are printed sixty words of description. 

 These descriptive tags are attached to 

 the plants when they are sent out. This 

 catalogue is made up of the identical 

 descriptions which will appear upon the 

 celluloid tags. 



The information on the labels con- 

 sists of the Plant Introduction (S.P.I.) 

 number, under which the plants are known 

 at all times, of the scientific name and 

 a common name, when one has been adopted 

 for this country, and a brief description 

 of the plant with its uses and, where 

 possible at this time, a suggestion of 

 the general region to which the plant is 

 likely to be adapted. The labels are 

 made of celluloid, covered on both sides 

 with fine linen, and if kept from contact 

 with the soil they will remain in good 

 condition for several years. If buried 

 in the soil they become brittle and il- 

 legible. 



