38 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
Metropolitan Parks. Mr. Manning requested the coóperation of all 
the botanists of the vicinity, and when they assembled it was noticed 
with surprise that the majority of them were strangers to one another. 
Until this time, many had carried on their studies and investigations 
entirely alone, the most favored ones having worked in little coteries of 
a few individuals. Of course, the professional botanists had reaped 
the advantage of their official connections, but the vast number of 
patient, diligent and observant workers, to whom botany is the pastime 
and pleasure of leisure hours, were slowly plodding their way into the 
mysteries of nature unaided by the advantages that are now offered so 
liberally by this club. Not the least disadvantage of this lack of inter- 
change of experience was that some of the labor of these solitary in- 
vestigators was misdirected, while much of it was many times dupli- 
cated. 
The many excursions in common and the meetings called by Mr. 
Manning were a great stimulus to the botanists participating in the 
work on the Park Flora and in several quarters plans for the formation 
of an association were broached and discussed, but it was not until late 
in 1895, that some of the Cambridge botanists, under the leadership of 
Professor Farlow, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Walter Deane, Mr. E. L. Rand and 
a few others took the matter earnestly in hand and called the meeting 
which resulted in the formation of the club. 
At first the meetings were held at the houses of some of the mem- 
bers, but by the summer of 1896, the club had grown to such propor- 
tions that it became necessary to find larger quarters and since then 
the club has met monthly, except during July, August and September, 
at the house of the St. Botolph Club in Boston. The membership 
consists now of forty-six resident and thirty-seven non-resident mem- 
bers. They represent every sort of vocation, showing how general is 
the interest in the study of plants. The professional botanists natur- 
ally are most numerous, and represent a considerable proportion of the 
higher educational institutions throughout New England. It speaks 
well, however, for the cultivation of the American business class, that it 
contributes to the club almost as many members as the professional 
botanists themselves, the remainder of the membership comprising 
teachers in the public and private schools, physicians, lawyers, literary 
men and men of leisure, but not of idleness, this favored class furnish- 
ing some of the most efficient members of the club. 
An herbarium of New England plants has been established, which 
