25 
any 
Our list of desiderata for 1931, unpurchased for lack of funds, 
exceeds $1000. Many of these items are, each year, becoming 
more rare and more expensive. Our library budget for 1932 
(adopted in December) provides, for publications, $700 less than 
form 19S 
The library budget of $13,745 for 1931 represents the income 
at 514 per cent. on a capital sum of nearly $250,000. A portion 
of the personal service of the library ($1930) is met from the Tax 
Budget appropriation, but the larger part of this budget (84 per 
cent.), including most of the personal service and the entire cost 
of purchases, subscriptions, and binding is met from private funds. 
The annual maintenance cost of the library should be placed on a 
— 
permanent basis by endowment. 
Herbarium 
The curator of plants reports the addition of 677 specimens to 
the Cryptogamic Herbarium, and the assistant curator of plants 
reports the mounting and incorporation into the Phanerogamic 
Herbarium of 11,254 specimens. On April 12, 4020 herbarium 
specimens were sent to the U. S. National Museum, Smithsonian 
Institution, on the basis of exchange. This was duplicate material 
— 
— 
from the collection of woody plants purchased by the Garden in 
1917 from Dr. C. Kk. Schneider, of Austria. 
The number of persons consulting the herbarium from outside 
the Garden organization was greater than at any previous year, 
and the number of specimens submitted for naming increases each 
year. 
A Suggestion for Collectors and Donors 
Since the Garden receives frequent offers of collections of 
pressed plants, it may, perhaps, be pertinent to remark here that 
such specimens are quite without scientific value unless accom- 
panied with full data as to the definite place and date of collection, 
and the name of the collector. Each specimen should also include 
enough parts of the plant to make possible its determination or 
the confirmation of its determination if it has already been named; 
this includes flowers, leaves, and fruit where possible. The latter 
requirement should also be observed in connection with specimens 
submitted for determination. 
