65 - 
have not been completed, but also of the types of which some 
report has been made. 
The culture of experimental types for which no report has yet 
been published has also been continued. 
A new line of research was started in July, with the employ- 
ment of Louis Eisman as research assistant for the summer 
months. Mr. Eisman was started on the problem of the cytologi- 
cal examination of various forms of Nephrolepis by means of the 
Belling staining method. He has completed a preliminary study 
along this line which gives promise of some very interesting re- 
sults and for which a report 1s practically ready. 
Conservation of Native Plants 
With the publication of a Leafict, “ How shall we save rare 
plant species from extinction,” the importance of two fundamental 
methods of conservation which the Garden has been specially 
interested in promoting was again stressed: viz., artificial propaga- 
tion and re-stocking, and plant sanctuaries. Attention was called 
in the Leaflets article to the fact that the establishment of a region 
containing rare plants as a State Park had sometimes had as an 
unfortunate result the destruction of the rare plants through grad- 
ing and path development. In confirmation of this statement, I 
append a letter from Dr. Homer D. House, State Botanist, relat- 
ing to a specific example of such destruction in the recently estab- 
lished State Park at Chittenango Falls, N. 
Letter from the State Botanist 
“Dear Dr. Benedict: 
“T have been reading with much interest your remarks in the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden Leaflets for May 16, 1928. 
“T think you have put the case Rew mildly. The various state park 
boards have been doing a wonderful work, and like all gigantic undertak- 
ings, mistakes here and there are apt to occur. Likewise in their haste to 
make certain sites available for recreation, or haste to spend the 
money available, an occasional irreparable harm is done to some form of 
wild life och a have been spared and protected. In this category 
I place the ‘Ciera of paths at aga Falls. This path develop- 
ment was quite an unnecessary thing there. The history of this site and 
f the one at on en Lake (Clark oes shows them to have been 
secured and preserved not alone for their scenic beauty but also for the 
