101 



ground bearing growing crops of the products of the aboriginal 

 agricukure of the region. These crops will be grown from seed 

 of the stock obtained directly from the local tribes, and which 

 they have been cultivating continuously in this region for centur- 

 ies. The crops which they have been cultivating here since pre- 

 Columbian times are corn, beans, squashes and pumpkins, to- 

 bacco, and sunflowers.'' The article contains considerable inter- 

 esting information about the woody plants of the region, which 

 are also to be ihcluded in the planting of the Capitol Grounds, 

 including some of the Indian lore and customs based upon the 

 native flora and aboriginal agricultural products. This .would 

 appear to be a unique plan for the development of the grouncfs 

 of the State Capitol. 



The annual report of the director of the Botanic Gardens at 

 Sydney, New South Wales, for the year 1919 contains the follow- 

 ing statement : 



" Trees that break into growth early in the spring, especially 

 deciduous trees, are usually by the close of the year showing 

 'the sere and yellow leaf,' not of autumn, but from the effect 

 of the smuts and smoke of the vessels ploughing through Port 

 Jackson, or lying at the wharves. Then we have the noxious 

 eft'ects of the smoke of a large city, the Sydney Botanic Gardens 

 being within the city itself." 



u 



Evidently the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is not the only insti- 

 tution of the kind to suffer grievously from the unfavorable at- 

 mospheric conditions of a large city due to the great quantities 

 of smoke and fumes pouring into the air from innumerable 

 stacks and chimneys. 



Need and Importance of Botanic Research. — In his annual 

 report for 1920 to the President, the Secretary 



of Agriculture 



comments as follows on the need and importance of botanical 

 research : 



■ 



'* We are at a stage of our agricultural progress where funda- 

 mental research and investigation are more essential than ever 

 before. We are confronted today with serious problems of the 



