476 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1894. 



Academy placed the care of its herbarium with the Conservator 

 chosen by the newly formed Botanical Section, instead of with a 

 committee chosen by the Academy as formerly. Certainly the con- 

 tinued and rapid gi-owth of the collection and the improvement of 

 its condition during that period have not been excelled in any por- 

 tion of the Academy's earlier history. Those who remember the 

 narrow, dark, and cramped accommodations afforded the botanical 

 collections in the old Broad Street building, and the unwieldly port- 

 folios in which they were arranged, under the old Linnjean system, 

 can now congratulate the working botanists upon the improvement in 

 the accessibility and usefulness of the herbarium which resulted 

 from the change of quarters and from more modern methods of ar- 

 rangement. At the time of that removal, the estimates of the ex- 

 tent of the collection were vague and exaggerated. The careful and 

 conservative enumeration which has since been made of the flower- 

 ing plants and ferns, places the number of species at the present 

 time at over 33,000. If we add to these the cryptogamic collections, 

 which have not been so carefully enumerated, the total would 

 probably approach 40,000 species. Nearly one-half of these have 

 been received since we have been in the present quarters. But the 

 number of new species received gives a very inadequate idea of the 

 growth, a large part of which consists of additions of species pre- 

 viously represented, but now in fuller suites from new and wider 

 localities, and in better condition. 



The collections removed from the old building were all in loose 

 sheets or species-covers, and had consequently suffered much in 

 handling, from the brittleness of age ; and many of the subsequent 

 additions were necessarily placed in the same way. But soon after 

 the removal it was determined that it was all-important that the 

 whole should be properly and permanently affixed to sheets with 

 collector's tickets securely preserved. The task was a great one, 

 with the little help at command, but it has been steadily pursued 

 during the time not required for the care of new accessions. The 

 separate North American collection is all thus mounted, and about 

 one-fourth of the larger general herbarium. 



The number of plants received during the past year reaches 2,119 

 species, of which 204 belong to the lower cryptogams and 1,915 are 

 phanerogams and ferns. Of the latter 489 are N. American species, 

 311 Tropical American, 191 European, 684 Asiatic, 150 African, 



