8 
of our most vital needs) during the next eighteen months. Not 
less than $250,000 is required to insure an adequate annual income 
for the work. 
Other Needs 
Our present endowment, and the fund whose need has just been 
indicated, will only make possible the continuation of our present 
activities with the present staff. New curatorships should be 
created and filled, and the expenses incidental thereto must be 
provided for. The salaries, of course, are properly chargeable to 
the Tax Budget appropriation, but this has not, for some years, 
been adequate to meet the salaries. The relation between the 
annual Tax Budget appropriations and the private funds budget, 
and matters related thereto, are noted on page 23. 
Funds for such purposes as the library, the collections of living 
plants, the herbaria, publication, and other items are still inade- 
quate to our needs; and the development of such special collec- 
tions as, for example, the rose garden and other horticultural 
features is yet to be provided for. A fuller statement of our 
needs was given on pages 36-37 of my Fourteenth Annual Re- 
port (for 1924). 
The Garden and the Public 
Attendance 
Over 514,000 persons visited the Garden during 1926, an in- 
crease of more than 10,000 over 1925. The attendance figures 
have had to be estimated, in part, on account of delays in getting 
the recording turnstiles in working order after their re-setting in 
connection with the erection of the new fence. We feel that the 
above figure is, in all probability, an understatement. 
Bureau of Information 
The answering of inquiries from the public involves practically 
every member of the staff, and each year sees an increase in the 
number and importance of the questions asked, especially from 
business organizations. A commercial laboratory dealing in phy- 
sicians’ supplies asks for information concerning Sphagnum moss, 
valuable in surgical dressings. A large firm of undertakers asks 
