BOTANY- AND FORESTRY. 45 



REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND FORESTRY. 



To Oscar Clute, M. S., President of the State Agricultural College: 



The following in brief is my report for the year closing June 30, 1889: 



DuriDg the year for a half term or more, one hundred and forty-four per- 

 sons have received instruction in structural botany, forty-eight in systematic 

 botauy, forty in physiological botany, sixteen in the use of the microscope 

 as applied to the structure of timber, twenty-five in forestry, twenty- two in 

 the examination of fungi and other lower forms of plant life, sixty-two have 

 been instructed for one-fifth of one term in the study of the most important 

 natural orders of plants. There have been seven special students, most of 

 whom are graduates of this or some other college or normal school. Three 

 of these received instruction during the long winter vacation. To accom- 

 modate so many students, during one term two classes were working at the 

 same time in different rooms. Owing to so many conflicting interests, it 

 has sometimes been found necessary to keep the laboratory open with one or 

 more teachers present for ten hours a day. 



The botanic garden has been kept in about its usual condition. 



The museum has been increased by 323 specimens, besides many others 

 which have been temporarily placed in a store room awaiting time to fully 

 prepare and label them. 



THE HEKBAEIUM. 



To the average farmer an herbarium would be of little value, but to the 

 botanist working in the interest of the agriculturist a collection of speci- 

 mens, dried, mounted and classified, is of inestimable value. It is for him a 

 chief instrument for work as is the plow or the harrow to the farmer. The 

 botanist does much of his work in the winter season, when nature is resting 

 and plants cannot be obtained for study. Comparatively few of the speci- 

 mens needed for study can be found growing in any one place, nor can they all 

 be made to grow well in one locality, even if transplanted. A classified collec- 

 tion of authentic specimens is valuable and sometimes quite necessary to aid 

 in identifying specimens sent for name and information. Besides these very 

 practical reasons for collecting an herbarium, there is the broader argument 

 that in no way is intellectual advancement promoted more than by the study 

 of nature in all her various phases, and a large herbarium spreads a wonder- 

 ful and interesting chapter of nature's history before the inquiring student. 

 For these and many other reasons a good working herbarium is a necessary 

 fixture in a well equipped botanical laboratory. 



As the Michigan Agricultural College possesses one of the finest botanical 

 laboratories on the American continent, so it also possesses one of the largest 

 and best collections of plants to be found west of the Alleghanies. All 

 classes and kinds of plant life are represented except Alga?. 



The specimens have been collected from all parts of the United States, 

 Mexico, South America, Europe and a few from Asia. Altogether they 

 make up a grand total of 19,781 specimens, representing about 10,000 species. 



These are comprised in four collections; (1) the general collection, 

 including all classes of plants from all localities; (2) the local collection, 

 including specimens collected in Ingham county; (3) Ellis and Everhart's 



