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are represented. For general plant classification purposes, such specimens
are satisfactory. The reproductive structures and the foliage associated
with the inflorescence of M. esculenta are remarkably uniform in morphological
structure in all the cultivars.

The general condition of herbarium specimens for studies of cultivated
plants is deplorable. The typical herbarium specimen, in addition to its
paucity of plant material represented, more seriously lacks detailed descriptive
information on the labels, and so few specimens contain comparable label data
that it is impossible to get more than a sketchy description of uses, pigmentation,
height, or branching pattern, etc. Few collectors have been properly
instructed to gather material and information necessary for cultivated plant
taxonomy. Anderson (1951) has given the only good instructions for collecting
materials for cultivated plant taxonomy in his study Inclusive Herbaria,
and in Mass Collections (Anderson et al., 1941).

The classification does not include information about the flowers or
fruits of the cultivars. In many cases, cultivars do not come to the flowering
stage before the plants are ready for harvest. In other cases, there are
numbers of flowers or fruits, but because the information to be used in a
classification must be comparable over a large percentage of the collection,
we have chosen to exclude flowering and fruit characters. In any case, as
noted above, the morphology of the flower and fruit is almost identical.
Hsu and Valerio (1966) reported various degrees of male sterility amongst
the cultivars. Again, unless a sufficient number of the cultivars have been
studied, we cannot use this type of information in deriving the classification
of the group.

In this study, the specimens that were used to represent the cultivars
were selected in the following manner. When a row, plot or field of a cultivar