America's Crop Heritage


vided for purchasing plant materials. The Interior Department,
however, did authorize necessary expenditures for collecting and
shipping the sugar cane cuttings to the United States. Morrow's
first opportunity to buy seeds came at Hong Kong. He notified
Perry of his lack of funds, and Perry gave him a small advance until
he could receive further instructions.
 Chinese Seeds-Morrow's Journal records that his first collection
was a small box of flower seeds secured in September, 1853. These
he sent to the president of the Philadelphia Horticultural Society.
At Macao, in October, Perry instructed Morrow to precede him to
Canton and to collect as many seeds as possible. They were to be
put aboard the clipper ship Coarser which was to return the sick
of the squadron to America. Morrow collected vegetable seeds
from the vicinity of Canton and field seeds of rice, beans, and
wheat from a northern province. Along with two other shipments
these were sent to New York and Philadelphia. These shipments
from around Canton also included tea seed, cotton, Chinese cab-
bage, and varieties of such common vegetables as cabbage, turnips,
greens, peas, and beans.
 The Japanese Emperor sent Morrow a small bag of thirty kinds
of garden seeds from the Imperial Gardens at Tokyo. Barley,
wheat, turnips, and various other garden seeds were procured in
Japan at other times. In the spring of 1854 Morrow sent large
papers of seed to the Department of the Interior. Other packages
were sent to the seedsmen, Landreth and Buist of Philadelphia,
and to gardeners in South Carolina. Morrow obtained large quanti-
ties of field, garden, and flower seeds in Simoda Bay. These are
listed and described as "White Pease, Black beans, Red beans,
Buck-wheat, Broom corn, Small red beans (soya), Large white
pease, Small white pease." Rice, wheat, barley, and a number of
vegetable and flower seeds were procured at the same time. That
summer, Morrow potted some plants among which were three
persimmons and a honeysuckle.
 Plant Spoilage-Morrow's attempts to bring back living plants
must have been particularly exasperating. Many of his plants died
on the way down from Japan to China. At first he had no glass
cases for their protection, and the plants were badly wilted at
sea by salt water and wind. The Navy apparently had neither the
space to shelter the plants nor an understanding of their needs.
Seeds were exposed to rain, and plants subjected to salt spray or