396 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



educational courses conducted under the auspices of the department 

 last year. It is the first gift of money ever received by the library 

 aside* from the regular congressional appropriations. 



Some progress Avas made during the year in completing the files of 

 foreign periodicals of the war period. Negotiations were entered 

 into with certain scientific institutions in Germany from whom we 

 are hopeful of receiving a number of missing volumes and numbers 

 in exchange for publications of this country. 



The shrinkage in the purchasing power of the library apj)ropria- 

 tion has seriously hindered acquisition of out-of-print books, the 

 number of those bought during the past year being comparatively 

 small. Perhaps the most important of the acquisitions of the year 

 was Curtis's Botanical Magazine, volumes 66-70 (1840-1844). The 

 volumes are exceptionally rare and have been on our desiderata 

 list for 15 years or more, during wliich time they have practically 

 never been obtainable save with complete sets of the Botanical 

 Magazine. Another periodical acquired this year which is very little 

 known, and, although less important than the preceding, possibly 

 much more rare, is the ''Portefeuille des Horticulteurs" (2 v. Paris, 

 1847-48), which contains notes of new plants introduced or originated 

 by the Cels and other French growers and importers of that period. 

 Other rarities were Bivort's "Album de Pomologie" (4 v. 1847-1851), 

 one of the most important illustrated fruit books; the ''Hortus 

 Ericaeus Woburnensis" (1825); PfeifTer's "Enumeratio diagnostica 

 Cactacearum" (1837); the "Florae Leydensis Prodronus" (1740) of 

 Adrian van Roy en; AUioni's "Stirpium praecipuarum littoris et 

 agri Nicaeensis Enumeratio" (1757); the "Enumeratio Plantarum 

 quae in horto Procopii a Demidoff Moscuae vigent" (1781), by Pallas; 

 one of the mileposts in the history of agriculture, the "Georgica 

 Curiosa" (Niirnberg, 1695) of Hohberg; Pierre Morin's "Remarques 

 necessaires pour la Culture des Fleurs" (1658), regarded as the first 

 floricultural book; "Hortorum Libri XXX," by Benedictus Curtius 

 or Le Court (Lugduni, 1560); "De Drie t'Zamenspraeken tusschen 

 Waermondt en Gaergoedt" (Haarlem, 1734), interesting as a docu- 

 ment on the seventeenth century " tulipomania" ; " Herbier fores tier e 

 de la France," by Eugene de Gayffier (Paris, 1868-1873) ; and " Genera 

 of birds," by C. R. Gray (London, 1849). The most important entomo- 

 logical work purchased during the year was Seitz, "Die Gross-schmet- 

 terlinge der Erde." One other acquisition of the year, although not 

 a purchase, should be mentioned here. The library has for some 

 time been waiting to catalogue an incomplete copy of Jacquin's 

 "Stapeliarum in hortis Vindobonensibus cultarum Descriptiones, 

 etc." (1806), being unable to find any other copy in the United 

 States with wliich to compare it. However, on learning that the 

 New York Botanical Garden had obtained one during the previous 

 year, arrangements were made to have the missing parts supplied by 

 photostat, so the library has now not only a working copy of its own 

 but has been able to print an authoritative catalogue card for what 

 seems to be one of the rarest of Jacquin's much-sought publications. 



Among the notable accessions of a different character should be 

 mentioned an extensive History of the Chicago Board of Trade, by 

 Charles Henry Taylor, in three volumes, and a bound file of the 

 Daily Market Reports of the New York Cotton Exchange, beginning 

 with the year 1900. 



