DEPARTMENT REPORTS. . 35 



Itack the building of a new botanical museum, until a new generation of 

 leachers and members of the Board of Agriculture Have come to man- 

 age and occupy the College. 



We need a new museum for illustrating agriculture, horticulture, 

 botany and foresti\y, in addition to the one we have now, devoted to 

 zoology and geology, but before securing a new building, with substan- 

 tial and ample quarters, it will be necessary for some of us to tell those 

 in authority over and over again the value of such a collection, well 

 put up and well cared for. Such a museum would be a great advertise- 

 ment and a great educator. We already have several nuclei for such 

 a museum. For example, the attic and the basement of the present bo- 

 tanical laboratory are stuffed with boxes and logs rescued from the fire, 

 with others brought from the Chicago Exposition, and all are covered 

 with the dust of years. 



I almost despair of ever securing money for building another good 

 museum, but my plan is to make a small beginning, trying to secure a 

 single plain room in which I can place our relics, that all of you may 

 become sufficiently interested to see the value of a larger and finer 

 museum. 



It will be wiser to be content with something small to start with. I 

 will illustrate my meaning by quoting from a recent report of the Presi- 

 dent and the Professor of Botany of Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege : "A garden containing all the shrubs and trees of Massachusetts 

 has long been the dream of the college, but the time has never seemed 

 ripe for such undertaking. 



''The idea of a Massachusetts garden at the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural College has been contemplated for some years. In 1870, there was 

 made bj^ Ignatz Pilat of New York, an elaborate water-color plan of a 

 proposed botanical garden, designed on the most artistic and compre- 

 hensive basis. The plan of this garden Avas to include all of the land 

 east of the Insectary and Botanic Museum to the President Clark bound- 

 ary. It was also to include a large pond for aquatic specimens, to be 

 situated on land just northeast of the Insectary, and now utilized for 

 market-garden purposes; and a small pond was to be located in the 

 ravine southeast of the upper plant house. 



"In the thirteenth annual report (January, 1876) President Clark 

 states that he is 'still hopefully waiting for the fund of $50,000 for the 

 endowment of the botanic gardens.' The plan recommended is also more 

 elaborate and costly than is required at the present time. To construct 

 the garden as Pilat designed would cost |50,000, and an additional fund 

 of $5,000 per annum would be required to maintain it. 



"The Botanical Department has long felt the necessity of a Massa- 

 chusetts garden, in order that students might become familiar with the 

 native trees and shrubs. Some of the students during the past years 

 have gone into landscape work, and certain members of the present sen- 

 ior class are expecting to do likewise. These students have not been 

 qualified to work for landscape gardeners because they have been ignor- 

 ant of the common plants of the State ; neither has it been possible, with 

 our equipment, to give them this knowledge. If they are sent out by 

 landscape gardeners, as they frequently are, to collect certain species, 

 they are not competent to recognize them. It is very essential, there- 

 fore, that students should know at least every native tree and shrub of 



