BOTANY 



BY WILLIAM GILSON FARLOW 



Professor of Cryptogamic Botany, Harvard University. 



HE numerous and important services rendered 

 to botanical science by the Institution may be 

 considered under the following heads: First, the 

 development of the knowledge of the phseno- 

 gamic flora, especially of unexplored or little 

 known regions of the South and West, through grants made 

 to collectors in those regions, and more particularly by the 

 publication in the "Contributions to Knowledge" and the mis- 

 cellaneous publications of a series of important monographs 

 on the North American flora by eminent American botanists; 

 secondly, contributions to the knowledge of the algae of the 

 United States and of other low cryptogamous plants ; thirdly, 

 the diffusion of information in regard to the local flora of 

 Washington and certain exotic floras, together with miscella- 

 neous papers, either original or translated, on various botanical 

 subjects printed in the different annual Reports or as Bulletins 

 of the United States National Museum; and lastly, the forma- 

 tion of a National Herbarium. 



The earliest reference to botanical work undertaken under 

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