The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of nine new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include clover, bentgrass, lettuce and wheat.

The nine certificates are being issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act. The certificates require that the varieties be new, distinct, uniform and stable. The owners will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for the duration of protection.

The nine certificates are:

• the Apache variety of arrowleaf clover, developed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, Texas;

• the Penn A-1*, Penn G-2*, Penn A-2*, Penn G-6* and Penn G-1* varieties of creeping bentgrass, developed by Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, University Park, Pa.;

• the Beacon variety of lettuce, developed by Paragon Seed, Inc., Salinas, Calif.;

• the Crusader variety of lettuce, developed by Progeny Advanced Genetics, Inc., Salinas, Calif.; and

• the Tubbs variety of common wheat, developed by State of Oregon, Acting by and through the State Board of Higher Education on behalf of Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.

* In the United States, seed of this variety (1) shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and (2) shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time- limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed- reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers. For additional information contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at telephone (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/science/PVPO/pvpindex.htm.