IMPORTANCE OF THE LIBRARY. 205 



of such volumes as Sibthorp's Flora Graeca, the Flora 

 Danica, Curtis's Flora Londinensis, Redoute's Liliacees, 

 Berlese's Iconographie du Genre Camellia, Bateman's 

 Orchids of Mexico and Gautemala, Lindley's Sertum 

 Orchidaceum, Martius's Palms, Lawson's Pinetum, the 

 Pinetum Woburnense, Strutt's Sylva Britannica, Moore 

 and Lindley's Ferns, Hooker and Greville's Icones Fil- 

 icum, Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the Flore des Serres, 

 Duhamel's Arbres Fruitiers, Decaisne's Jardin Fruitier, 

 and Risso and Poiteau's Histoire et Culture des Gran- 

 gers, is sufficient to give importance to the library. 

 Nor, while providing costly works of reference, have 

 manuals of cultivation, and other smaller but not less 

 valuable books, which may be studied by members in 

 their homes, been neglected, but all that could be pro- 

 cured may be found on the library shelves. Notwith- 

 standing the great advances made in the last twenty 

 years, the library is, like all other libraries, incomplete : 

 indeed, it cannot be said to be complete in any de- 

 partment ; but we may trust, that, by the time the Soci- 

 ety's interest in the Stickney Fund expires, the library 

 will, with the accessions from other sources, so nearly 

 approximate to completeness, that those to whose care 

 its treasures are then confided will have little more to 

 do than to add such publications as appear from year 

 to year. The law of gravitation holds good with re- 

 gard to libraries ; and we may expect, that, as this in- 

 creases, its attraction will reach farther, and bring more 

 and larger donations of books and money. At present, 

 it is unrivalled on this continent ; and William Robinson 

 of London, the editor of The Garden, in noticing the 

 catalogue in 1873 (having before personally examined 

 the library), said, " We know of no equally extensive 



