REPORT 



OF THE 



Committee on School Gardens and Children's Herbariums. 



FOR THE YEAR 1894. 



By hp:nry l. clapp. 



At the Exhibition of Children's Herbariums, November 30 and 

 December 1, 1894:, there were fifty exhibitors ; fifteen collections of 

 flowers, numbering 256 specimens ; fourteen collections of ferns, 

 numbering 129 specimens; two collections of grasses, numbering 

 70 specimens ; twenty-six collections of leaves, numbering 865 

 sheets, and of all kinds 2,020 sheets. 



Some of these collections were notable. Arthur C. Faxon's 

 collection of 190 sheets of leaves, was remarkable for its size and 

 completeness. It contained finely mounted sprays of leaves of 

 100 native trees and 90 introduced trees. His collection of 50 

 grasses was probably the best ever exhibited in Horticultural Hall. 



Two collections of flowers, sent by Lucy B. Foster and family 

 L. Ames, were remarkable for the skill manifested in pressing and 

 mounting the specimens. The specimens themselves were large 

 and well arranged on the sheets, and the natural colors had been 

 kept to a remarkable degree. Children can study such collections 

 with more than usual profit. On the whole there has been satis- 

 factory improvement in pressing and mounting the plants. Those 

 who have exhibited before have, in most cases, made marked 

 progress. Many who exhibit for the first time, hardly know 

 what neat and beautiful work is. Unfortunately too many exhib- 

 itors cannot visit tlie exhibition at all, to learn from seeing the 

 fine collections always to be found there. Nice work does not 

 consist in covering the under-surfaco of leaves with glue, or in 

 bandaging down a plant as the Lilliputians bound down Gulliver. 



