REPORT OF THE SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN. 257 



with the List of Library Accessions a list of books, etc., wanted, 

 the last having been in 1883. It has every year since then been 

 my desire to print another, but it has been omitted because the 

 time required to prepare it would delay the publication of the 

 Transactions. But with the publication of the Library Accessions 

 in a separate pamphlet this objection no longer existed, and 

 accordingly such a list was included in that pamphlet, and many of 

 the books in it have already been procured, especially the publica- 

 tions of the United States Department of Agriculture, making our 

 set of those publications complete with very few exceptions. 



The extension of the usefulness of the Library among members 

 of the Society and others has been kept constantly in mind, and 

 a circular, intended to promote this object, signed by the Presi- 

 dent, was sent to every member of the Society and a large num- 

 ber of its correspondents, and still wider circulation was given to 

 it by some of the leading horticultural and daily newspapers. 



No special appropriation for the work on the Card Catalogue of 

 Plates was made this year, but it has been carried on as far as 

 possible by those regularly employed here. 



One of the most vital portions of the Library, which makes us 

 sharers in the horticultural progress of the day, is the periodicals 

 supplied by the Society's appropriation, and by exchange for our 

 own publications. These, which are ever growing in number, not 

 only keep us informed as to the latest discoveries in horticulture, 

 but when bound form a valuable, and not inconsiderable, perma- 

 nent part of the annual accessions ; indeed, with other publications 

 received by donation and exchange, they constitute the bulk of 

 these annual additions. Another most valuable class of books is 

 supplied by the Stickney Fund, but the interest of the Society in 

 this fund expires with the present year, and it is much to be hoped 

 that among the members and friends of the Society there may be 

 found one possessing the means and disposition to establish a fund 

 for the increase of the Library, which shall take the place of the 

 Stickney Fund, and shall be a perpetual possession. 



The fact that only three weeks after the organization of the 

 Society a Committee on the Library was established to collect 

 books, drawings, engravings, etc., relating to horticulture, shows 

 the estimate attached by the founders of the Society to the 

 importance of a library. After a time, however, the interest 

 in the Library seemed to flag, but later, owing to the diligent 



