LIBRARY committee's REPORT. 83 



but the sets were incomplete and it will require much diligence to render them 

 perfect ; this your Committee are endeavoring to do. If the appropriation 

 during the twenty years anterior to 1860 had been devoted to the increase and 

 improvement of the Library, we should now have a collection of horticultural 

 books unsurpassed in value and number ; as it is, there are private libraries 

 which excel us in this respect. The renovation of the Library, and bringing 

 it to a position of usefulness, was not to be done in a year, but during the past 

 two years it has been gradually improving, until now your Committee are able 

 to say it has reached a position of great usefulness, from which we trust it will 

 never be allowed to fall. The reading room, which a year since could only 

 be considered an experiment, has been of great advantage, and we recommend 

 it be considered a permanent institution. Some of the periodicals taken dur- 

 ing the year 18G0 have been discontinued the present year, as your Committee 

 deemed them of little value or found they were not read; others which seemed 

 desirable have been added, but these changes have been few, and the list of 

 domestic periodicals remains very much the same with that given in the Libra- 

 ry Report for 1860, to be found on the sixty eighth page of the Transactions 

 of the Society for that year. 



But few foreign periodicals have been added to the list given last year, 

 owing to a want of funds ; but all then taken have been continued, and un- 

 bound volumes have been placed upon the shelves in handsome, substantial, 

 and serviceable binding. 



It was deemed unnecessary to bind all the domestic periodicals ; many are 

 of fleeting interest, and some not worth the expense of binding. It is, how- 

 ever, believed that all of permanent value have been bound ; others remain on 

 file, open to the examination of members on application to the librarian. The 

 many rare and valuable books in the possession of the Society have all been 

 added to the " List of Books not to be taken from the Library Room." Thia 

 list has thus been greatly increased ; the wisdom of this step is evident; there 

 are many works which, if lost or injured, no money could replace, and the 

 chances of loss or damage are greatly increased by allowing them to be in 

 general circulation ; others are too bulky to be taken from the room, and others 

 are sets or portions of sets, of which the loss of one volume would irreparably 

 injure the whole set. These volumes may at any time be taken out by special 

 vote of the Library Committee, application being made in writing at any regu- 

 lar monthly meeting. The rules of the Library have, during the past year, 

 been revised and some important changes made. The fines imposed for re- 

 taining books beyond the specified time have been collected, and may amount 

 to a considerable sum ; this money will be devoted to the increase of the 

 Library. 



Your Committee are glad to state that the Second Volume of Audubon's 

 Birds, supposed to be lost, has been returned ; a new copy of Volume II. of 

 Illustration Horticole, of Vol. 15 of The Cottage Gardener, and of Bigelow'a 

 Plants of Boston, have been procured, so that thus two imperfect sets are ren- 



