Seeds and Plants Imported
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Issued March 30, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, Chitf of Bureau. INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 1 TO JUKE 30, 1915. (No. 43; Nos. 40389 TO 40895.) WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING CPPIOE. Issued March 30,1918. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, Chief of Bureau. INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PUNTS IMPORTED OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1915. (No. 43; Nos. 40389 TO 40895. ) WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING CFFIOE, 191& BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. Chief of Bureau, WILLIAM A. TAYLOR. Associate Chief of Bureau, KARL F. KBLLERMAN. Officer in Charge of Publications, J. E. ROCKWELL. Chief Cleric, JAMBS E. JONES. FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION. SCIENTIFIC STAFF. David Fairchild, Agricultural Explorer in Charge. P. H. Dorsett, Plant Introducer, in Charge of Plant Introduction Field Stations. B. T. Galloway, Plant Pathologist, in Charge of Plant Protection and Plant Propagation. Peter Bisset, Plant Introducer, in Charge of Foreign Plant Distribution. Frank N. Meyer, Wilson Popenoe, and F. C. Reimer, Agricultural Explorers. H. C. Skeels, S. C. Stuntz, and R. A. Young, Botanical Assistants. D. A. Bisset, R. N. Jones, P. G. Russell, and Glen P. Van Eseltine, Assistants. Robert L. Beagles, Superintendent, Plant Introduction Field Station, Chico, Cal. E. O. Orpet, Assistant in Plant Introduction, Chico, Cal. Edward Simmonds, Superintendent, Plant Introduction Field Station, Miami, Fla. John M. Rankin, Superintendent, Yarrow Plant Introduction Field Station, Rockville, Md. Harry Duffield, jr., Assistant in Plant Introduction, Rockville, Md. J. E. Morrow, Superintendent, Plant Introduction Field Station, Brooksville, Fla. Henry E. Juenemann, Superintendent, Plant Introduction Field Station, Bellingham, Wash. Edward Goucher, Plant Propagator. Collaborators: Aaron Aaronsohn, Director, Jewish Agricultural Experimental Station, Haifa, Palestine; Thomas W. Brown, Gizeh, Cairo, Egypt; H. M. Curran, Laurel, Md.; M. J. Dorsey, University Farm, St. Paul, Minn.; Dr. Gustav Eisen, New York, N. Y.; E. C. Green, Servico do Algoddo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; A. C. Hartless, Seharunpur Botanic Gardens, Seharunpur, India; Barbour Lathrop, Chicago, III.; Miss Eliza R. Scidmore, Washington, D. C; Charles Simpson, Littleriver, Fla.; H. P. Stuckey, Experiment, Ga.; Dr. L. Trabut, Director, Service Botanique, Algiers, Algeria; H. N. Whitford, School of Forestry, New Haven, Conn.; E. H. Wilson, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass. CONTENTS. Page. Introductory statement 5 Inventory 11 Index of common and scientific names 99 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE I. The orange jessamine (Chalcas exotica (L.) Millspaugh) in southern Florida. (S. P. I. No. 40392) 12 II. A weeping form of Chinese elm, Ulmus pumila L. (S. P. I. No. 40507) 12 III. The granadilla, Passiflora quadrangularis L., in Hawaii. (S. P. I. No. 40552) 44 IV. Seeds of the oil kiri, or kiri oil, tree (Aleurites cordata (Thunb.) Muell. Arg.) of Japan. (S. P. I. No. 40673) , 44 V. White eggplants (Solarium melongena L.) from China. (S. P. I. No. 40759) 76 VI. The Smith bamboo grove at Burroughs, near Savannah, Ga. (Phyl- lostachys sp.; S. P. I. No. 40842) 76 3 INVENTORY OF SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED BY THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION DURING THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30,1915 (NO. 43; NOS. 40389 TO 40895). INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. The plant material recorded in this inventory represents collec- tions made and gifts received from different parts of the world while the European war was in progress, and, as showing how little the war has affected the attitude of the scientific men with whom this office is in touch, it may be remarked that specialists in the following coun- tries have furnished plants or seeds in response to requests or upon their own initiative: Italy, France, Holland, England, and their colonies, Eussia, China, Sweden, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Colombia, Turkey, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Guate- mala, Cuba, Liberia, and Paraguay. While the number of shipments falls below that of similar periods before the war and is probably much below what it would have been had there been no war, it is nevertheless a substantial showing of cooperation among the scientific plant enthusiasts of the world. The most notable collections recorded in the inventory are those made by the Department's explorer, Mr. Frank N. Meyer, during his expedition into the little-known Province of Kansu, in north- western China. This expedition was made from Peking, from which city Mr. Meyer started on June 29, 1014, his route taking him through the following principal cities of China and enabling him to get a general idea of the field for exploration there: Changte (Honan), Luanfu, Pingyangfu, Wensi, Tungchowfu, Sianfu, Paoki, Fenghsien, Huihsien, Chenghsien, Chiehchow, Siku, Minchow, Tao- chow, Titaochow, Lanchowfu, Pingliang, Kingchow, and Pinchow. It is outside the province of this brief introduction even to sketch the accomplishments of this expedition, which lasted seven months, further than to call attention to the plant species which were dis- covered during its progress, as enumerated in this inventory. Mr. NOTE.—This bulletin is a record of new or little-known seeds and plants procured mostly from abroad. It is intended for distribution to agricultural experiment stations and the more important private cooperators. 5 6 SEEDS AND PLANTS IMPORTED. Meyer's character sketches of the things he finds and the uses which he believes can be made of them are always interesting reading, and often they give a glimpse into the circumstances surrounding the discovery and securing of the seeds or other plant material which he sends in to be grown somewhere in this country. As only little more than a year has passed since these collections were sent in, it is manifestly impossible to indicate anything regarding the ultimate success of the various introductions which he made. One unfortunate circumstance it may not be out of place to record here, as it may have a bearing upon the botany of some of Mr. Meyer's introductions. Although perhaps the most laborious work of the expedition was the collecting and drying of the herbarium specimens, of which he procured a large number, a considerable portion of his collections was lost in the great Galveston storm, which by an unfor- tunate coincidence struck that city just as his collections were on the "last lap," so to speak, of their long steamer and railroad journey from Kansu to Washington. About a third of his specimens were ruined, especially herbaceous material, but the larger part of the woody specimens were saved, mounted, and are now in the herbarium. A variety of hull-less oats (S. P. I. No. 40650) and a hull-less bar- ley (S. P. I. No. 40652), two varieties of high-altitude corn (S. P. I. Nos. 40653 and 40654) from western Kansu, near the borders of Tibet, and five varieties of kaoliang collected in the Provinces of Shensi and Kansu, may prove of value in the development of varieties suited to our own high plateaus. The recent researches of Eeimer, which indicate that certain of the Chinese pear species have a remarkable resistance to pear blight, will give an unusual interest to the collection of three as yet unde- termined forms of Pyrus from Kansu. The collection of Chinese jujubes at Chico has been enriched by two varieties (S. P. I. Nos. 40506 and 40877) which Mr. Meyer con- siders stand second only to a variety which he discovered previously at Paihsiangchen, Shansi. One of these (S. P. I. No. 40506) has fruits as large as a small hen's egg and unlike most varieties is destitute of spines' when old and produces trees having trunks 1J feet in diameter. Another (S. P. I. No. 40878) is used for boiling with millet, or much as we do raisins for baking in bread. As was expected, Mr. Meyer found that Kansu possesses a great variety of ornamental trees and shrubs. Two species of Viburnum (S. P. I. Nos. 40692 to 40694), three species of Euonymus (S. P. T. Nos. 40696 to 40698), four species of rose (S. P. I. Nos. 40699 to 40702), and a linden (S. P. I. No. 40720) which may make a valuable park tree are among those recorded in this inventory. At an altitude of 6,000 feet near Lungteh, Kansu, Mr. Meyer found the davidiana peach (S. P. I. No. 40722). This is possibly its most APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1915. 7 western locality in China. Those interested in the breeding of hedys- arums for the production of hardy forage varieties or as ornamentals will welcome two species, as yet undetermined, which Mr. Meyer found in Kansu (S. P. I. Nos. 40746 and 40747). The gall nuts of China, which are exported in large quantities from Hankow and are used for a black dye by the Chinese and for tanning purposes by Europeans, Mr. Meyer found to come from the Shensi Province and to be produced by a gall insect which attacks the leaves of a native sumac, Rhus potanini (S. P. I. No. 40717), which sumac might easily be grown on cheap lands in our Southern States, as it is not particular as to soil requirements. Both this species and another from the same region, Rhus javanica (S. P. I. No. 40716), are hand- some ornamentals. Since the Chinese pistache (Pistada chinensis) has shown itself adapted to the Southwest and avenues of it have been started, it is interesting to have Mr. Meyer's record of a tree at Tsaichiapu (S. P. I. No. 40662) which has a girth of 16 feet, measured 5 feefc above the ground. The wide range of territory in which the Chinese elm (Ulmus pumila) has succeeded will make Mr.