PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 57 



same of their respective neighborhoods. I flatter myself the motive of these 

 few hasty observations will secure for them the indulgence which they need, 

 for their manner, owing to the circumstances under which they are written. 



In his reply, dated December 16, the secretary of the Institute 

 said, " The subject to which your letter relates is one that the Insti- 

 tute has very much at heart, and the collection which you propose, 

 as well as an extensive botanic garden, are among the establishments 

 which enter into its plans." On March 10, 1820, Dr. Darlington was 

 thanked for a contribution of American plants, while on January 

 14, 1826, Dr. Alexander McWilliams presented a series of plants 

 of the District of Columbia, about which he wrote as follows : 



I present to the Columbian Institute a herbarium of the plants of the District 

 of Columbia, which I have collected and arranged according to the Linnean 

 improved classification. That it is deficient in many of the plants found in this 

 district will be obvious to every one, yet this defect I hope to remedy the 

 ensuing summer. There are other and more important defects I much fear 

 which I hope the more experienced botanist will pardon and correct. It is 

 presented with a wish that it may be the commencement of a National Her- 

 barium, here to be deposited, where the inquirer may peruse and examine at 

 leisure all the vegetable productions of our extensive country. 



Miscellaneous. — Of zoological specimens there was a small and 

 miscellaneous assortment, evidently mostly marine and including a 

 quantity of shells from Florida, while of fossils there were a few 

 from various localities. Ethnology was represented by articles of 

 dress, implements and various other objects from the western United 

 States, the northwest coast, the Pacific islands, China and Africa, 

 and there were over two hundred coins, about one-half of which 

 were ancient, from the near East. We also find mention in the 

 records of some articles of an industrial character, such as a speci- 

 men of morocco leather and a model of a Chinese fishing stage. 



In archeology the Institute possessed a small but valuable collec- 

 tion of art objects, which were said to have come mainly from Greece 

 and Pompeii. The entries in the minutes of the Institute, which 

 are undoubtedly very incomplete, are as follows: May 6, 1826, 5 

 marble tablets, with inscriptions, from Pompeii, gift of Walter 

 Jones; December 15, 1828, various fragments of marbles from cele- 

 brated ruins in Greece, gift of Thomas W. Brent; March 7, 1831, 

 two white marble statues, Flora and Ceres, gift of Mr. Roux de 

 Rochelle; June 6, 1831, some interesting objects of art from the 

 same donor. Speaking of the museum of the National Institution 

 in his Washington guide for 1842, George Watterston states " Some 

 fine pieces of statuary, formerly belonging to the Columbian Insti- 

 tute, also grace the hall." Alfred Hunter, in his catalogue of the 

 collection of the National Institute, 1854, 1855, describes, among 

 other archeological objects, a bust of Ceres and another of Bacchus, 

 which the account leads one to suppose is, in fact, the Flora of the 



