Foreword


plants in cultivation in this country. Over 160,000 such entries
were recorded and may be found in "Plant Inventories of the
Section of Seed and Plant Introduction of the Department of
Agriculture," which my colleagues and I-especially the late
O. F. Cook and P. H. Dorsett and Walter T. Swingle, who is
still living-took great pains to record.
 I am still so in the habit of writing out and exploring for
new plants that life holds the freshness which comes to those who
play with living rather than inanimate objects and to whom the
future events have greater attractions than have the events of
the past.
 I hope this book will touch the lives of many thousands of
men and women who were still unborn in 1898, but who are
wondering what kind of cultures the humans inhabiting the
globe will build during their lifetimes. They cannot build
without plants the beautiful world of our dreams.


 DAVID G. FAIRCHILD

The Kampong
September, 1949