7o8 The Smithsonian Institution 



considerations of the transfer are given as follows, in the 

 Report of 1868 : "The transfer is made with the understand- 

 ing that the superintending botanist shall be approved by the 

 Institution, that the collection shall be accessible to the public 

 for practical or educational purposes, and to the Institution 

 for scientific investigation or for supplying any information 

 that may be asked for by its correspondents in regard to the 

 names and character of plants. It is further stipulated that 

 due credit shall be given to the Institution in the publications 

 of the department for the deposit of the original specimens, 

 as well as for the additions which, from time to time, may be 

 made to them by the Institution." ^ In return for this transfer, 

 the Agricultural Department agreed to turn over to the 

 Institution any specimens relating to ethnology or to other 

 branches of natural history than botany then in its posses- 

 sion or which might thereafter come into its possession. The 

 transfer of the herbarium to the Agricultural Department 

 was referred to again in the Report^ for 1870, where an ac- 

 count was given of the most important collections contained 

 in the herbarium at the time of the transfer in 1868 and 

 those subsequently received. 



If we consider in its entirety the botanical work accom- 

 plished by the Institution during the first fifty years of its ex- 

 istence we find that it gives a picture of the gradual progress 

 of botany in a new, and to a great extent unexplored, country. 

 The first botanical problem to be solved in a new country is 

 of necessity the exploration of its different parts and the de- 

 scription of the native species. As the systematic knowledge 

 of the native flora increases, the important question as to the 

 causes of the distribution of the different species, the effects of 

 soil, temperature, and other climatic and biological conditions, 

 assume a greater and greater significance, and when a general 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1868, page 15. 2 Ibidem, 1870, page 36. 



