EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 17 
in the last few years, the impossibility of transmitting seeds 
and plants to foreign gardens, through the mails, has made 
it almost impossible to distribute seeds to such correspond- 
ents, and, as a result, only a few packets have been sent 
off. During 1896, 241 consignments of plants and seeds 
were received at the Garden, of which 175 consignments, 
aggregating 3967 plants and packets of seeds, valued at 
$515.00, were donated or sent in exchange for Garden 
material. 
It is estimated that, for various temporary reasons, the 
number of visitors to the Garden during 1896 was scarcely 
as large as in the preceding year. On the open Sunday 
afternoon in June, 10,598 persons passed the gate, and on 
the corresponding Sunday afternoon in September, 13,589 
visitors were counted. So far as estimates can be made 
from the data at hand, the number of visitors to the Gar- 
den is now about one-half greater than in 1889, though, as 
no automatic register of visitors is kept at the gate, the 
estimates are not accurate. The multiplication and improve- 
ment of car lines by which the Garden can be reached make 
it probable that the increase noted will continue. 
While many difficulties are encountered in securing the 
correct and permanent labeling of the collections of living 
plants, the gardeners are gradually coming to understand 
the necessity of care in preventing labels from becoming 
lost or separated from the plants to which they pertain. 
A considerable part of the time of an intelligent man 
is given to writing labels and supervising labeling, and by 
far the greater part of the collection is now fairly well and 
accurately labeled, the names adopted in the Index Kewensis 
being in the main employed, in accordance with the rules 
of the Society of American Florists * and a report adopted 
by the Madison Botanical Congress of 1893.T 
Though the gardening features have this year been main- 
* Proceedings Socy. Amer. Florists, 1893,91; American Florist, Aug. 
17, 1893; Florists’ Exchange, 1893, 730, 732. 
+ Proc. Madison Bot. Congress, 1893, 41. 
9 
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