44 
So far as our supply lasted, after other gardens had been sup- 
plied, packets were sent to members of the Garden—825 in all. 
About 95 packets were requested in excess of our ability to supply 
them. 
Ture LIBRARY 
“ T have often thought that science would progress more if there 
were more reading.” Thus wrote Charles Darwin to Sir Joseph 
Hooker, the director of Kew Gardens, in 1865. No doubt Darwin 
was right. There is probably a more systematic attempt to * keep 
up with the literature”? now than in Darwin’s time, but the great 
bulk of botanical publication today is the despair of botanists. 
To read all the current literature, even of one’s limited field of 
special interest or research, would be physically impossible. The 
situation is reflected by the number of serial publications of which 
current numbers have been received in our library during 1933, 
namely 979, These publications are in 26 different languages. 
Most botanists of university training are more or less at home in 
four languages; many in five or more. But material in languages 
outside the Romance and Teutonic groups, such as Russian, Japa- 
nese, Ifinnish, Magyar, and several others, is unavailable to most 
readers except those to whom such languages are the native tongue. 
In view of this bulk and diversity, it is increasingly essential to 
have the current literature easily accessible, together with journals 
devoted to abstracts and summaries. A library rich in current 
publications as well as in standard and classical works, is an in- 
dispensable tool of research, and equally important in centers of 
educational work. 
lor obvious reasons, it is important to have periodical publica- 
tions promptly bound, especially when usage is considerable or 
more or less constant. Special attention is called to the statement 
in the appended report on the Library, that almost no binding has 
been done during 1933, and that there is now an accumulation of 
more than $3,000 worth of binding to be done. This becomes in- 
creasingly urgent since the number of users of the library steadily 
Inereases. 
Technical publications are expensive, for the market is compara- 
tively limited and the cost of publication relatively high since it in- 
