BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 179 



So far as practicable, all of these things are placed together, according to 

 the natural orders to which they belong. In collecting specimens, most 

 attention is given to our own common native and useful trees. An effort is 

 made to illustrate woods as manufactured, or partially manufactured, as well 

 as in the natural condition. For want of room, many articles will be made 

 in reduced size. For example, it is intended to show sashes, doors, blinds, 

 pieces of moldings, flooring, well and poorly cut, weather strips, canoes, oars, 

 tackle-blocks, spokes, neck-yokes, poles, shafts, hubs, rims, saddle-trees, 

 hames, handles of hoes, forks, shovels, chisels, planes, mallets, spools, lasts, 

 kegs, barrels, hoops, baskets, matches, wooden- ware, etc., etc. In time a 

 guide book should be issued for the use of students and visitors. 



In the museums of the Kew Gardens, near London, the timbers of the 

 different countries are separated from each other. 



The following quotation from the last guide book to the museum of 

 economic botany at Kaw states the object of the museum to show the prac- 

 tical application of botonical science: "■ They teach us to appreciate the gen- 

 eral relations of the vegetable world to man. We learn from them the sources 

 of the innumerable products furnished by the vegetable kingdom for our 

 use and convenience, whether as articles of food, of construction and appli- 

 cation in the arts, of medicine or curiosity. They suggest new channels for 

 our industry. They show us the variety in form and structure presented by 

 plants, and are a means of direct instruction in most important branches of 

 useful knowledge. 



" We see from them the particular points upon which further information is 

 needed, especially as to the origin of many valuable timbers, fibres and 

 drugs, in order to perfect our knowledge of economic botany. In brief, the 

 museum shows us how little as well as lioiu 'mucli we know of the extent to 

 which herbs, shrubs and trees contribute to our necessities, comforts, and 

 numberless requirements." 



Museums containing mounted mammals, birds, reptiles, skeletons, fishes, 

 shells, fossils, insects, minerals, Indian relics, other animals in alcohol are 

 not uncommon. They are very interesting and instructive. But a museum 

 devoted wholly to plant products is not so common. If well selected, arranged 

 and fully labeled, a visitor with a little time and some application never 

 fails to find much that is new and worth knowing. This museum is for the 

 instruction of the students in the mechanical course, as well as for those in 

 the agricultural course. 



The large and increasing numbers who visit our museum above mentioned 

 and the comments they make indicate that it already possesses many attrac- 

 tive features, not only in the timber products here noticed, but in numerous 

 other collections. 



W. J. BEAL, 

 Prof, of Botany and Forestry. 



September 35, 1887. 



