404 MASSACHUSETTS HOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



one which increases with every clay's delay. A card catalogue of 

 the books is also exceediugl}' desirable, but it is hoped that the 

 present catalogue may be made to answer until there shall be 

 sufficient space for a systematic arrangement of the books, as 

 otherwise much of the work would unavoidabl}- require to be done 

 over again. 



Perhaps there is no library in our country containing so large a 

 proportion as our own of costly illustrated books. The plates, 

 often of high value as works of art, offer temptations which the 

 experience of other libraries has shown, are not always resisted. 

 The Librar}' Committee, therefore, iu 1865, adopted the measure 

 of precaution commonly used in libraries, by procuring a stamp for 

 the purpose of stamping every plate with the impress of the Society 

 as soon as received. This was, however, kept up for less than a 

 year, but the present Library Committee have now directed it to 

 be resumed. It will make a permanent addition to the work of 

 those having immediate charge of the librar}', but if it prevents 

 the mutilation of valuable books the labor will be well bestowed. 



The work of binding those books most needing it has been 

 continued during the present year. The largest number of any 

 one set which has thus ])een made convenieut for use is forty 

 volumes of the Journal of the National Horticultural Society of 

 France. For the completion of this set our most grateful 

 acknowledgements are due to Mons. E. Glatigny, the Librarian of 

 that Society, whose painstaking kindness has been unwearied. 

 With those previously bound it now consists of sixty-three 

 volumes. There are but three sets of books in the library 

 comprising as many volumes as this: viz., Curtis's Botanical 

 Magazine, of 91 volumes ; the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage 

 Gardener, of 77 volumes; and the Gardener's Chronicle, of 63 

 volumes, the same number as the work under consideration. 

 Twenty-five volumes (all thus far received) of the new edition of 

 Hallier's Flora Von Deutschland, have also been bound. This 

 work will be completed iu four or five more volumes, and it is 

 thought that when these are added our collection of books on the 

 Botany of Central Europe, will be so full that further additions 

 may for the present be suspended. 



ROBERT MANNING, 



Secretary and Librarian. 



