1894.] ADDRESS. 7 



stimulate botanical investigations or the study of vegetable 

 physiology. Could there be a wiser expenditure of money ? 

 Of course our own librarian, with his manifold duties, could not 

 undertake such a work, nor could such an enterprise be carried 

 out at once. It would need extraneous help and would be the 

 work of years. The Massachusetts Society have such a card cata- 

 logue, begun several years since, which is now well on the road 

 to completion, and, if I am rightly informed, the annual appro- 

 priation has been only $100 for the purpose. 



Again, a Society like this should possess a herbarium. The 

 nucleus of one the Society can have at any time by accepting 

 the offer of a member of the Society and complying with the 

 condition imposed by him. That gentleman, perhaps the most 

 accomplished botanist in this city, has offered to us his pressed 

 and mounted and complete collection of the flora of Worcester 

 County, on condition that the Society provide a suitable recepta- 

 cle or, in other words, a glass case. If want of room prevents 

 compliance with the condition and consequent acceptance of such 

 a munificent ofier, then the sooner we pull down and build anew 

 the better. 



Experimental Work. 



I have, on one or two former occasions, suggested the feasi- 

 bility of the Society sometime in the future engaging in experi- 

 mental work of some nature. Exactly in what manner would 

 be a matter of detail. It may be a serious question whether we 

 should feel warranted in ever pursuing an independent line of 

 action, but much botanical and horticultural work has been done 

 in other localities in cooperation with other similar lines of in- 

 vestigation. The Arnold Arboretum is run in connection with 

 Harvard University. The Shavv Gardens and Washington Uni- 

 versity, at St. Louis, were found to be of mutual benefit to each 

 other. In fact, a class-room study of botany, however important, 

 is but half the work. This must be supplemented by a study of 

 plant life with all its adjuncts. And here the line of investiga- 

 tion runs closely alongside those of other sciences. It involves 

 chemical analysis — the use of the microscope — entomological 

 investisration. 



