REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



By GEORGE VaSEY, Honorary Curator. 



In view of the grear amount of current work, I have not been able to 

 make a catalogue of the plants contained in the Herbarium, but am only 

 able to state in general, that that part of the Herbarium which is iu 

 the Department of Agriculture is disposed in eases which are arranged 

 against the walls of three rooms, occupying in all a wall-space of about 

 85 running feet; that the cases are 8 feet high and divided into spaces 

 about inches high, 13 inches wide, and 18 inches deep; and that of 

 such spaces there are about 16 in each row, making a total of more than 

 1,300 spaces or shelves. We estimate that the shelves each contain, on 

 an average, about one hundred sheets, or altogether more than one hun- 

 dred and twenty thousand sheets. These are properly arranged in or- 

 ders, genera, and species, and labeled so as to be readily accessible. 

 We have a large quantity yet to be mounted and added to the collec- 

 tion, besides a great number of duplicates for distribution and exchange. 



The Department of Agriculture has employed for a part of the yeai 

 three agents to collect botanical specimens and information respecting 

 the vegetation of little known regions. One of these agents has operated 

 in western Texas, one in California (Southern and Lower), and one in 

 Washington From these agents we have received a large quantity of 

 of botanical specimens. 



We have received as additions to the Herbarium through the Smith- 

 sonian Institution a valuable set of plants collected by officers of the 

 U. S. Fish ( 'oinmission steamer A Ibatrossin South America and Alaska; 

 also several packages collected by Lieutenant Pond of the U. S. Navy, 

 in Lower California and the islands adjacent. We have also received 

 through the Smithsonian Institution, a collection of four hundred spe- 

 cies of the plants of Japan, collected by Mr. S. Tegima of the Tokyo 

 Educational .Museum, Tokyo, Japan. 



We have made from our duplicate collections distributions to the fol- 

 lowing societies: 



To the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

 To the Herbarium of the Jardin ties Plautes, Paris, Prance. 

 To the Herbarium of the British Museum, London, England. 

 To the Royal Herbarium, Kew, England. 



To the Botanic Garden, Natal, South Africa. 



