THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 17 



to complete the general plan of tlie improvement of tlie mall proposed 

 by him and adopted bj^ Congress. An annual appropriation, however, 

 has been made for keeping in order the lot on which the tSmithsonian 

 building is situated, and it is hoped that in due time the whole reser- 

 vation from the Capitol to the Washington Monument will, in ac- 

 cordance with the original design, be converted into an extended park. 



The Smithsonian building having been completed, the refuse mate- 

 rial will be removed from the south part of the lot, and the whole 

 grounds around the institution will then be in a condition for per- 

 manent imjirovement. It is to be regretted that Congress has not 

 made an appropriation to carry out the suggestion of Dr. Torrey, and 

 other botanists, of establishing here an arboretum to exhibit the vari- 

 ous ornamental trees of indigenous growth in this country. The 

 climate of Washington is favorable to the growth of a very large num- 

 ber of the products of our forests, and an exhibition of this kind would 

 serve to render better known our botanical wealth, and to improve the 

 public taste. The preservation and cultivation of our native trees are 

 objects of national importance. 



A subscription has been collected by the members of the American 

 Pomological Society for the erection of a monument to the memory of 

 Downing, and the President has given his consent to the placing of 

 this in the same lot with the Smithsonian Institution. The monument 

 will be erected in the course of the present year, and will serve to per- 

 petuate the memory of a public benefactor, as well as to embellish the 

 grounds. 



Publications. — Since the last meeting of the Board of Regents, the 

 seventh volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge has 

 been printed and distributed. Owing to certain changes, which were 

 considered desirable in some of the memoirs mentioned in the last 

 report, they were not ready in time for the press, and this volume was 

 consequently made up without them. It therefore does not contain as 

 many pages of printed matter as some of the previous volumes. It has, 

 however, a larger number of plates, and consequently the expense of 

 its publication has been equal to that of any of the preceding ones. 



1. Among the papers mentioned in the last report was one by Mr. S. F. 

 Haven, librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, on the progress 

 of information and opinion respecting the archa3ology of the United 

 States. The printing of this paper, which is now nearly completed, was 

 delayed for the purpo'§e of enabling the author to extend it in some par- 

 ticulars, and to include in it a more definite account of some branches 

 of ethnological investigation than was at first contemplated. It will 

 be recollected that the object of this paper is, first, to present the specu- 

 lative opinions relative to American antiquities, which preceded anv 

 systematic or scientific investigation, and to exhibit the various hypo- 

 theses advanced, as to their origin, based upon hints from sacred or 

 profane history ; secondly, to follow the steps of inquiry, nearly in 

 the order of time, and to present a summary of facts supposed to be 

 developed, and views entertained at different stages of research and 

 discovery. When the author^ in pursuing his subject, arrived at the 

 consideration of the period when philological and physiological deduc- 

 2 



