Apparently developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it is a method for making seeds of certain varieties sterile. While you will be able to plant these varieties from commercially available seeds, you will not be able to include them in any seed-saving efforts. Since last summer I have acquired a number of new gardening books, but only two of them really stand out. The book is a 240-page glossy that combines two books into one. The second section is an encyclopedia of the most popular annuals, perennials, bulbs, tubers, grasses and ferns.
Every entry is illustrated with a clear color close-up and sometimes two.
There is also a paragraph of general information and then descriptive information on the blossoms, foliage, growth habits, origins, growing needs, propagation and common uses. The other book is completely useless when it comes to gardening tips, but it is nonetheless a treasure. In India thugs used it to poison their victims, and it was officially used to execute criminals. There are 257 pages crammed with this sort of minutia, and each entry is illustrated with a line drawing. The author, Eliot Coleman, is a gardening writer and market gardener who lives in Maine and manages to make his small farm pay by selling freshly picked produce from October through May.