66 THE PLANT WORLD 



Editorial. 



We feel assured that not only botanists throughout the country, but 

 all persons having at heart the welfare of our Government scientific in- 

 stitutions, will rejoice to learn that Congress has provided for the erection 

 of a new building for the National Museum at a total cost of three and 

 a half million dollars, of which $250,000 is made available during the 

 coming fiscal year. The unfitness of the present building is apparent to 

 every one who has visited Washington. It is a huge, barn-like structure, 

 with no adequate accommodations for storage, having ofiices for the most 

 part suggestive of attic cupboards, a roof which leaks with every shower, 

 an apparent average summer temperature of 110, and an apparent average 

 winter temperature of 20. Furthermore, the Museum is filled to over- 

 flowing with valuable scientific material, much of which is at present 

 practically inaccessible, and under these conditions it has been difiicult 

 for the curators and their assistants to carry on their work satisfactorily. 



The regents of the Smithsonian Institution will soon take under con- 

 sideration the question of an exact site for the building, and the arrange- 

 ment of details in the provisional plans which have been adopted. The 

 Museum will now have an opportunity to develop to an extent hitherto 

 impossible, and will take its place at the head of our great scientific 

 repositories. 



The New York Botanical Garden has added another to its long list of 

 notable achievements in the establishment of what are to be known as 

 "resident research scholarships." In the words of the announcement 

 which appears in the Journal of the New York Bota?itcal Garden for Feb- 

 ruary, these scholarships "are designed to meet the needs of professors 

 or instructors in colleges, oflficers of museums, or other botanists of equiv- 

 alent training or experience, who desire to use the facilities of the Garden 

 for continuing investigations already commenced, or for carrying out in- 

 vestigations which require facilities additional to those at their command 

 at home." Applications are to be made to the Director-in-Chief, who is 

 empowered to make grants at his discretion. The value of each scholar- 

 ship is $50 a month, but no one person may hold a scholarship for a 

 period exceeding six months at one time. 



The value of these scholarships to students wishing to avail themselves 

 of the vast opportunities for study offered by the Garden, but hitherto 

 financially unable to remain in residence for the requisite period, will be 

 very great. The results of the special investigations will be published 

 under the direction of the Garden. 



