Excerpt from Collecting Data and Specimens for Study of Economic Plants Only rarely can a satisfactory answer be given to inquiries about some native plant when nothing more is known than its local or vernacular name. A native name for a plant in a foreign country may not have any more significance than would a common name in the United States. A plant called brown daisy in one State may well be known as blue eyed marigold in another. In Latin American countries, also, the common name Of a plant Often varies from one locality to another. For this reason, the local name is not a sufficient clue to the botanical iden tity Of a plant. Likewise, people Often send in a single leaf, a piece Of stem, or a root only to learn that small fragments are inadequate. Bota nists need a sufficient portion Of a plant, with flowers or fruits, some times both, -in order to identify it and to assign the correct botanical name. The specimen must be pressed flat and dried before shipping. Fresh plants wrapped in Oilpaper for mailing usually arrive completely decayed. A plant tucked into an envelope arrives in a shriveled condi tion or else shattered to bits. The best method Of assuring safe shipment is to protect the dried specimen with two pieces Of stout cardboard. Insect and diseased-plant specimens, as well as analysis and propaga tion material, also must be adequate in quantity, properly prepared, and carefully packed. Fungi and insects should never be shipped from one country to another while still. Alive, unless specifically requested by specialists; and in that event special arrangements would need to be made to conform with the quarantine laws Of the countries concerned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.