25 
The herbarium is an indispensable adjunct of a botanic garden, 
but our own herbarium, of some 150,000 specimens, is under- 
financed for providing suitable personnel, as well as specimens, 
field work, and supphes. An endowment specifically for this 
herbarium would be an effective means of advancing botanical 
science and education. 
Tue Liprary 
Hippocrates of Cos, in his treatise On the Old School of Medi- 
cine (De prisco medicina, 5th Century, B.C.) states that an in- 
quirer, if he is competent, will “conduct his researches with 
knowledge of the discoveries already made, and make them his 
starting point. But anyone who, casting aside and rejecting all 
these means, attempts to conduct research in any other way or 
after another fashion, deceives and is himself deceived.” 
To follow this teaching of Hippocrates was never more essen- 
tial than now and never more difficult, on account of the great 
amount of research material being published in widely scattered 
periodicals, both obscure and well known. This is one of the 
yf a scientific and 
educational institution. Another important function of the l- 
reasons why a library is so important a part 
brary is to make the published results of research available to 
amateurs and other laymen. Science could never thrive in an 
unsympathetic world or a world of general ignorance, and it 
should be one of the concerns of a scientific institution, like the 
Botanic Garden, not merely to conduct and publish research, but 
to promote public interest in science and to disseminate among the 
general public a knowledge of the aims and methods and results 
— 
of science. From the beginning of the Garden our library has 
been open free, daily, to the public. 
The appointment of the new librarian, Mr. Wilham E. Jordan, 
is recorded on page 33. The report on the brary for 1936 begins 
on page 92, The importance of a permanent library endowment 
— 
to provide for publications, binding, personnel, and other needs 
cannot be Overc mphasize ad. 
CooPERATION WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 
The Federal organizations known as WPA and PWA are 
frequently confused in the public mind, as to t 
— 
— 
leir nature, pri- 
