45 
budget adopted for 1917. This leaves the Garden entirely de- 
pendent upon special gifts of uncertain amount for the purchase 
of plants and books, the prosecution of scientific investigations, 
and the publication of the results of research. What the Garden 
sorely needs at once is an endowment fund of not less than 
$500,000, assuring an annual income of approximately $25,000, 
and restricted by the terms of gift to our scientific and educational 
work. Later this amount will need to be increased. 
Improvements and Replacements.—Special mention may ap- 
propriately be made here of two or three large items among 
numerous needed improvements and replacements, namely, a new 
fence, new entrance gates, water pools west of the conservatories, 
and a retaining wall and planting at the museum embankment. 
To care for these items an issue of corporate stock should be re- 
quested from the City. 
Nursery and Experimental Plot—Attention was called to this 
need in my preceding report. If the matter is not too long de- 
layed it would doubtless be possible to acquire title to two or 
three acres of unimproved land in one of the more thinly settled 
districts not far from the Garden. This need will become in- 
creasingly urgent and increasingly difficult to meet each year. 
Womans Auxiliary—The advantages of a woman’s auxiliary 
was also noted in my preceding report. It is anticipated that 
steps may be taken to form such an organization early in IQ17. 
Aims and a Program for the Second Five Years—lI have indi- 
cated, in Appendix 1, the main lines along which the Garden 
should develop during its second five years, and the financial pro- 
vision necessary to secure this development. 
Acknowledgments 
The gifts made to the Garden during the year have all been 
acknowledged with thanks by the trustees, as reported at the 
regular monthly meetings of the board. It is a pleasure to record 
here the appreciation of the director and staff to all donors; most 
of their names and gifts are mentioned in the appended reports 
of curators. Special mention should be made of the gift of about 
245 cacti and other plants by the New York Botanical Garden; 
the gift of his private herbarium by Dr. E. B. Southwick; the 
