PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 77 



placed in his possession, Dr. McWilliams turned over to the Colum- 

 bian Institute an herbarium which he said was of his own collecting. 



Two important propositions advanced by the Botanical Society 

 were the establishment of a botanical garden and the formation of a 

 national herbarium, both of which were also among the objects of 

 the Columbian Institute. The first, submitted by Mr. Watterson 

 on September 12, 1817, but not acted upon at that time and never 

 subsequently referred to, provided, 



" That a committee be appointed to present a petition to Congress 

 requesting the passage of a law authorizing a lottery for the purpose 

 of establishing. a botanical garden in the City of Washington under 

 the superintendence of this Society." 



The second, adopted on March 27, 1820, which may very well have 

 been put in operation, though the period of activity was then near 

 its close, was in the form of a resolution, as follows: 



"That with a view to form a national herbarium it shall be the 

 duty of each member to preserve two or more of such specimens as 

 he may collect or procure, to be submitted to the society at their 

 stated meetings, and a selection of the best shall be made and trans- 

 ferred to the general herbarium under the care of the curators whose 

 business it shall be to arrange them at the close of every year, name 

 them, and deposit the said collection in the herbarium of the United 

 States." 



Speaking of the final adjournment of the society, Mr. Coville says: 

 "Although the society itself was dead, it left, either directly or indi- 

 rectly, certain published records of its work on the flora of the Dis- 

 trict." He mentions three publications, namely, " Florida Colum- 

 biensis," a list of the technical and popular names of 296 species of 

 flowering plants with the date of their observation in 1817 and 1818, 

 printed for the society ; a chapter on the " Botany of the District of 

 Columbia," containing a list of 458 plants, by Dr. J. A. Brereton, 

 printed in William Elliot's Washington Guide, 1822 and subsequent 

 editions ; and " Florae Columbianae Prodromos," compiled by Dr. 

 Brereton, published in 1830, enumerating 860 species and, therefore, 

 greatly extending the number recorded in the journal of the Botani- 

 cal Society. 



