(263) 



purpose, and our own staff supplies the best, for they know 

 what we already have and what we lack. A special Ex- 

 ploration Fund could now be operated with immense advan- 

 tage to the Garden and to the progress of science. 



Investigations. 



The development and organization of the facilities of the 

 laboratories, the accession of a large number of books and 

 periodicals to the library, and the additions to the collections 

 of living, preserved and fossil plants has resulted in a direct 

 and marked increase in the efficiency of the Garden in carry- 

 ing out one of its most important functions in the promotion 

 of research. 



Not only have the advantages in the several subdivisions 

 of the subject to which attention has been previously directed, 

 been increased, but the appointment of additional members 

 of the staff, and the removal of the paleobotanical collection 

 of Columbia University to the Garden have given additional 

 opportunities for the consideration of problems in economic 

 botany, plant pathology, developmental taxonomy, and paleo- 

 botany. The results of some of the investigations com- 

 pleted have been brought out in the publications of the Gar- 

 den, or in other periodicals, and others are still in press. 



Professor L. M. Underwood, of Columbia University, has 

 continued his studies of the ferns and fern allies, and carried 

 out field observations on the flora of Porto Rico and Colo- 

 rado. Professor Underwood has also exercised supervision 

 over the work of the Columbia students at work in the 

 Garden. 



Dr. H. H. Rusby, curator of the economic collections, 

 has continued his investigations of the flora of Colombia and 

 Bolivia, and also given much attention to various economic 

 problems. 



Dr. D. T. MacDougal, first assistant, has completed his 

 studies in experimental morphology of Lysimachia, and pub- 

 lished a manual of Plant Physiology containing an outline of 

 the principles of the subject, and such detailed methods of 



