84 DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



ciglit or ten years old from the urborteuni, sections of logs of several kinds 

 showing liow tliey check ut the ends as exposed in tlie mill yard, cuts slioAving 

 much sap-wood, much heurt-wood, or tlie lieart one side the center, a number 

 of trees injured by vines, one grape vine over one hundred feet long; several 

 trunks which are very winding, samples of many kinds of knots cut and pol- 

 ished, some tough boards from second growth trees, some showing defects caused 

 by dead limits which remained on the tree. There are polislied boards of our 

 native and cultivated trees and shrubs in great variety, a collection of barks, of 

 peat, of pressed wood to imitate carving, very thin sections of seventeen species 

 of woods suitable for the school room to use as illustrations; truncions and cross- 

 sections of our native woods; samples damaged in various Avays by insects; 

 black ash, buttonwood, and white pine separating into layers; pieces of trees 

 damaged by lightning, by mice, by squirrels, by birds, and by horses, where the 

 owner failed to provide a hitching post; a very good collection of nuts and 

 cones, and cotton; quite a collection of the cereals, such as wheat in various 

 conditions and from several countries; twenty-seven sorts of sorghum, rice in 

 the bundle as grown at the south, hybrids between wheat and rye, 90 species of 

 grasses in ])unches, roots taken from tiles which had been obstructed, samples 

 of labels and plates as used by various horticultural societies; a typical set of 

 fossil plants; a case devoted to Indian corn classified as dent, flint, tuscarora, 

 sweet, po[), and "husk" or "poded" corn. Among the most interesting of these 

 are samples grown from the "earliest" times by Indians in Florida, in Dakota, 

 in Canada ; corn in various stages of manufacture, corn with a different even num- 

 ber of rows from four to thirty-six, ears witli the rows running spirally, ears 

 without evidence of rows, corn which has been crossed, ears of many colors, and 

 ears each one of which shows more than one color of corn, ears doubled at the 

 end, corn inside the cob, ears wdiicli taper very much, ears defective, ears with 

 much silk, ears where every kernel is covered by a nusk of its own, a stalk con- 

 taining seven ears, one 15^ feet high with the tip of the ear nearly 12 feet from 

 the ground. This collection of Indian corn is thought to be very complete for 

 this country. 



In one case is a beginning of a typical collection of mosses, liverworts, lich- 

 ens, fungi, ferns, rushes, etc., so arranged that a visitor may get a little notion 

 of these orders of plants. 



In future, it is the intention to keep the museum open every day. Visitors 

 who wish to receive much benefit from the specimens should take time to read 

 the labels. 



THE HERBARIUM. 



For a year past, 1 have given more attention to the herbarium than ever be- 

 fore. While I did the work of a Professor of Horticulture, no time could be 

 6j)ared for this work. An herbarium is as necessary for the student of botany 

 as a Shorthorn herd book is to the breeder of one of the leading kinds of cattle. 

 AVe have been mounting the addition of 2,500 s])ecies of European plants sent 

 us from Harvard University. To the "outsider" any amount of work may be 

 placed on an herbarium without making any show. 



THE BOTANIC GARDEN. 



Th s has run along about as usual with some improvements by way of adding 

 plants and adding some earth in low places. 



As is well known by those who have recently been at the Agricultural College, 



