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has given the following outline of her problem: “ The plant draw- 
ings on which | am working illustrate the botanical (or rather 
pharmacological) section of an unpublished manuscript, which no 
one has yet succeeded in reading, as it 1s written in an unknown 
cipher, but which has been attributed to Roger Bacon; whether 
rightly or wrongly 1s not yet known. In any case, the manuscript 
appears to record the scientific work of some mediaeval investi- 
gator; and is believed by some scholars to have been written about 
the end of the 13th century, and to contain matter which, if it can 
be deciphered, may provide important data for the history of medi- 
cine, astronomy and, possibly, embryology. A professor in one of 
our universities has some hope of solving the problem if he can 
obtain a clue to the cipher through the names of the plants de- 
picted, and has asked me to identify for him as many species as 
possible. Your fine collection of old herbals has already enabled 
me to verify two of my guesses (Ffyoscyamus albus and Atropa 
Belladonna), and I am hoping to be able to come back and verify 
others next week.” 
The plant drawings in the old herbals were used at another time 
by an artist who was preparing designs for making museum models 
illustrating the evolution of common vegetables since the sixteenth 
century, and by still another artist (Miss Mansfield) as a basis for 
style in the preparation of colored illustrations for the magazine 
The Country Home, and black and white illustrations for a new 
herbai being prepared for publication along lines similar to the old 
herbals. 
Interlibrary Loans 
Iifty seven volumes were lent to libraries of the following in- 
stitutions: Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research; Cali- 
fornia Academy of Sciences; Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
Department of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y.; Chemical 
Foundation, New York; Columbia University ; General Milk Com- 
pany, New York; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; New 
Jersey Zinc Company, New York; University of Pennsylvania; 
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. 
Thirty-five volumes were borrowed for the use of the Garden 
