Another long delayed exhibit recently added (see Fig. 12) is 

 a model of the European wild kale, a sea-shore plant of the west 

 coast of Europe. Representing the wild ancestral type from which 

 the entire European cabbage clan with its many kinds of kale, head- 

 cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts has apparently been 

 derived, this plant is of more than ordinary interest. 



Various other items under way for the exhibits in this hall will 

 doubtless be completed in 1944. In this connection there also were 

 prepared during 1943 most of the many items required for an exhibit 

 in the Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25) to show what part of our ordi- 

 nary vegetable diet is of Old World origin. 



With the installation of Sitka spruce and noble fir obtained last 

 year from the Pacific coast, and the reinstallation of ponderosa and 

 sugar pine in Charles F. Millspaugh Hall (Hall 26), the exhibit of 

 principal American woods finally becomes virtually complete. Only 

 minor items — a few details of branches and some photos — remain 

 to be acquired to round out a few recent installations from the Pacific 

 northwest. It is expected that these can be obtained from friends 

 of the Museum in that region. 



In 1943 the Department of Botany received 238 accessions con- 

 sisting of material for the economic collections and for the exhibits 

 and herbaria. There were 7,722 specimens received as gifts, 8,124 

 as exchanges, and 1,046 as purchases; 10,669 (duplicates of 3,522 

 numbers included) had been collected by Museum expeditions in 

 previous years. 



The total of numbered specimens in the herbaria and other 

 organized collections at the end of 1943 was 1,127,000. During the 

 year there were added to the herbaria 17,777 sheets of specimens, of 

 which 14,000 were cryptogams; also, several hundred photographs 

 and printed or typewritten descriptions of new species of plants. 

 Of the total receipts, specimens for the herbaria, including duplicates 

 for exchange, amounted to 23,455, consisting of plant specimens and 

 photographs. 



The largest accession of the year consisted of 6,500 herbarium 

 specimens (2,272 numbers) and more than 1,100 numbers of woods 

 and economic specimens, each sufficient for three or more duplicates, 

 received as the result of the 1942 Field Museum-Venezuelan 

 Government Expedition to the upper Orinoco, conducted by Cura- 

 tor Llewelyn Williams. 



The largest gift of the year to the phanerogamic herbarium con- 

 sisted of 991 specimens of plants of the Hawaiian Islands and the 



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