Vol. III. 



PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



New York, November, i896. 



No. II. 



THE RELATIONS OF THE COLLEGE MUSEUM TO THE PROPOSED ECONOfllC 



MUSEUn OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN. LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



By Prof. H. H. Rusbv, M. D. BOTANICAL 



Professor of Physiology, Botanic aud Materia Medica, New York College of Pharmacy. GARDEN. 



It is not a little surprising that so long 

 a time should have elapsed without the 

 establishment of a museum of economic 

 vegetable products in a city where there 

 is such a great trade in them as in New 

 York, especially when we consider that 

 this has been for generations one of the 

 chief centres of botanical activity in the 

 country. Such a want does not exist in 

 any of the large commercial centres of 

 Europe, nothwithstanding that the coun- 

 tries which they represent are very poor 

 in vegetable resources, as compared with 

 the countries of the new world. Even in 

 our own country, New York is surpassed 

 in this direction by the cities of Wash- 

 ington, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago 

 and St. LrOuis. The loss in educational 

 influence thus entailed does not need 

 pointing out. Those in a position to 

 know appreciate that the commercial loss 

 is not less. Samples of presumably val- 

 uable products are continually cast aside 



because their recipients have no means 

 of knowing or of readily ascertaining 

 their identity or valuable properties. 

 The search for and investigation of new 

 products is thus discouraged instead of 

 being stimulated, as is the case in L,on- 

 don, for example. Such samples are 

 there taken to the Museum of the Phar- 

 maceutical Society, or to the Economic 

 Museum of the Kew Gardens and de- 

 termined, their relations to other similar 

 products ascertained and their own prob- 

 able value estimated. The additions 

 which have in this way been made to 

 British trade are enormous. It is in fact 

 for this very class of commercial objects 

 that the government has supported her 

 botanical gardens, which, enormously 

 expensive as they have been, are con- 

 sidered as having more than paid for 

 themselves in the aggregate. 



The need of such a collection for refer- 

 ence and study in this city has been con- 



