Publications, 1886-1923

The U.S. Plant Introduction Garden Records comprise materials from files, reports, manuscripts, and publications transferred from the USDA's Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Florida. The records in this collection contain original and copy correspondence, notes, reports, plant inventories, photographs, lists, books, and drawings that record the early activities of the Miami research station.

The bulk of the files contain materials, primarily notes, correspondence, photographs, clippings, and pamphlets, on the subject of mangoes. The documents in the files were kept in their original subject order without any apparent format or date arrangement. One box of files contains original handwritten and typewritten correspondence from David G. Fairchild to T. B. McClelland, Harold Loomis, R. A. Young, and others at the Miami station between 1939 and 1951. There are also carbon copies of replies from station personnel to Fairchild. Other records include documents from Fairchild's 1939-1941 Pacific expedition, and two handwritten and illustrated notebooks of F. Wilson Popenoe recording his observations of mangoes in India. In addition, there are a few items related to the investigation of cryptostegia as an alternative source of rubber during World War II.

The supplementary project reports cover the following tropical crops: Annona (anona), artichoke, avocado, carob, chayote, lychee (litchi), mango, and papaya. There are also three volumes of supplemental reports on the Miami plant introduction garden's activities, and a list of rubber-producing plants.

Among the bound volumes are reports of David Fairchild's trips to the Florida plant introduction station in 1913, 1914, and 1915. The collection also includes a few volumes of bulletins of the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, and proceedings of the American Pomological Society for 1891 and 1895.