212 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



unconnected with any useful process, may, in the course of a few 

 years, become the fruitful source of a thousand inventions. 



That the encouragement of the discovery of new truths, the publica- 

 tion of original memoirs, and the establishment of new researches, are 

 in conformity with the design of Smithson, is not only manifest from 

 the terms of his will, but also from the fact, which has lately come to 

 our knowledge, that he at first left his property to the Royal Society 

 of London, for the very object embraced in this part of the plan. And 

 what prouder monument could any man desire than the perpetual asso- 

 ciation of his name with a series of new truths? This building and all 

 its contents may be destroyed ; but the volumes of the Smithsonian 

 Contributions, distributed as they are among a thousand libraries, are 

 as wide-spread and lasting as civilization itself. 



During the past year a number of memoirs have been accepted for pub- 

 lication, and are either in the press or are waiting the drawings to illus- 

 trate them, now in the hands of the engraver. It is the duty of the Sec- 

 retary, in accordance with the original plan of the Institution, to give a 

 popular account of these memoirs in his annual Report. 



1. The first is a memoir by Dr. Asa Gray, professor of botany in Har- 

 vaid University, consisting of an account of a collection of plants made 

 by Mr. Charles Wright, in an expedition from Texas to El Paso, in the 

 summer and autumn of 1849. 



It was stated in my Report for that year that one hundred and fifty 

 dollars had been subscribed on the part of the Institution towaid the 

 outfit of Mr. Wright, and that the plants collected by him would be sub- 

 mitted to Dr. Gray for examination and description. The memoir now 

 mentioned is the result of this arrangement, though it also contains notices 

 of plants gathered by other collectors in adjacent regions, especially by 

 Dr. Wislizenus in the valley of tlie Rio Grande and Chihuahua, and by 

 the lamented Dr. Gregg in the same district, and in the northern part of 

 Mexico. This memoir is a good exposition of the character of the vege- 

 tation, and consequently of the climate, of the regions traversed. 



Specimens of all the plants obtained by Mr. Wright belong to this In- 

 stitution ; and these, with sets collected by Fendler and Lindheimer, 

 form the nucleus of an important and authentic North American her- 

 barium. 



2. Another paper on botany is by Dr. John Torrey, of the college of New 

 Jersey, Princeton. It gives illustrations of the botany of California, and 

 describes a number of new and interesting plants discovered by Colonel 

 Fremont in his different explorations in that country. 



Some of the plants collected by this intrepid traveller have been de- 

 scribed in the appendix to his first and second report, but many are still 

 unpublished. Of the collections made during his third expedition no 

 descriptions have been given, except that two or three of the new plants 

 were briefly characterized by Dr. Gray, in order to secure priority of 

 discovery. 



In the memoir presented to the Institution, Dr. Torrey has given de- 

 scriptions of a number of genera of new and remarkable plants, all col- 

 lected by Colonel Fremont in the passes and on the sides of the Sierra 

 Nevada. With regard to this publication Dr. Torrey remarks, tliat he 

 had hoped that arrangements would have been made by the govern- 



