732 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
as a clearing house for manufacturers could begin were it not that at the com- 
mencement of its labors there was already available to the committee a large 
amount of data on special subjects gathered and catalogued at various re- 
search institutions. It is therefore already on a working basis, both in its 
advisory and its research capacity. 
That there is great need for a work such as this hardly requires demon- 
stration. Exclusive of foods, numerous botanical raw products are very 
important to our industries. There are gums and resins, rubbers, vegetable 
fats and oils, vegetable dyes and tannins, fibres, cellulose, drugs and herbs, 
essential oils and perfu;mes, and possibly most important of all, forest prod- 
ucts. A great number of facts have been discovered about many of these 
products, but in too many cases even the name of the species from which 
the raw material comes is uncertain, obscure or unknown. Very often a 
great industry buys its raw material from a broker or an importing house 
without knowledge of either the geographic or the specific source. When this 
source is cut off, as has frequently been the case during the past three years, 
and as possibly will be more frequent during the next few years, the manu- 
facturer has been placed in an uncomfortable position. Curiously enough, 
such a predicament is many times brought about by the curtailment of a 
products used in such relatively small quantities that the fact that it is essen- 
tial to the finished article is overlooked or forgotten during times of plenty. 
The Botanical Raw Products Committee, if it gives the service expected of 
it, must answer questions concerning all such materials. To do this, data are 
required along five different lines: botanical, agricultural, industrial, com- 
mercial and bibliographical. 
One should know the correct scientific name together with the scientific 
synonomy, the published descriptions, original sources and plates. He should 
have at hand the native names, for, though often confusing, they are fre- 
quently the sole clues to the identity of commercial specimens. No less 
important is the history, the morphology, the physiology and the geographi- 
cal distribution both of the plants themselves and of their near relatives. 
Pertinent agricultural facts are those regarding varieties, their types and 
origin; cultural requirements, including data on soils and fertilizers, chmate, 
temperature, moisture, planting and cultivation; harvesting and storing; 
diseases and their treatment; and pests and their control. 
Industrial data are stih more complicated. One must know all of the eco- 
nomic uses of a plant, and oft-times these are varied as well as numerous. 
The products go under many aliases, both trade names and native names. 
These must all be listed. Various methods of preparation must be entered. 
Data on yields, grades and values, must be assembled. The raw products 
themselves must be identifiable, and methods of detection frequently must 
be worked out. And even here the work does not end. Equivalents, sub- 
stitutes and adulterants must be described and tabled, and the uses for which 
