16 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
some 6,000 volumes,— many of them composed of pam- 
phlets and hence representing a number of titles much 
greater than this. As I had hoped might be the case, the 
exchanges of publications offered the Garden are increas- 
ing, and some 185 institutions have already placed the 
library on their mailing lists. 
With the transfer of the herbarium and library to their 
new quarters, the small museum room will become vacant 
again, and it is proposed to arrange in it an instructive 
synoptical collection in either systematic botany or some 
branch of economic botany; but the expense and slowness 
of making a suitable and properly arranged collection, even 
though it be small, are such as to render it improbable that 
the building can be opened to the public during the coming 
year. 
Throughout the year Mr. Duffey has given to experimental 
work, and observations on noxious insects, such time as could 
be spared from his practical duties. The principal results 
of his work in spraying plants for the destruction of in- 
jurious insects and fungi were presented by him to the State 
Horticultural Society, at its recent meeting in Sedalia, and 
will be published, with illustrations, in the forthcoming 
report of the Society. Among the practical results reached 
was the discovery that by forcibly spraying the smaller 
cacti with pure water by means of a force pump and 
Vermorel nozzle, the mealy bugs, so troublesome because 
of their habit of ensconcing themselves between the bases 
of the spines, may be dislodged without injury to the 
plants and at less than one-fourth of the usual expense, 
since it has heretofore been thought necessary to remove 
them individually by hand, by the aid of brushes or pointed 
bits of wood, —a laborious process which, moreover, some- 
times results injuriously to the plants. Asa result of Mr. 
Duffey’s leave of absence, reported a year ago, he has been 
enabled to determine the scale insects of the Garden 
satisfactorily, and now has in hand observations on the life 
history of several representatives of this injurious group. 
