The botanical work of the government. 
JOHN M. COULTER. 
The amount of botanical work that has been undertaken 
by the national government is perhaps unknown to all except 
those who come in direct contact with it. Thinking that such 
information would not only be of interest to botanists in gen- 
eral, but would also be of service to the work itself, the chiefs 
of the various divisions were asked to furnish the following 
information, which was given very promptly and courteously. 
At present four distinct divisions of botanical work are organ- 
ized under the Department of Agriculture, although other di- 
visions also do a certain amount of work that may be fairly 
called botanical. 
1. DIVISION OF BOTANY. The total appropriation for the 
Division of Botany for the year ending June 30, 1895, is $38,- 
. The appropriation made for the year ending June 39, 
1896, is $33,800, the new Division of Agrostology having 
been separated from the Division of Botany, as indicated be- 
low. The employees who are engaged in strictly scientific 
work, exclusive of those engaged in semi-technical, editorial 
and clerical work, and the temporary field agents, who are 
employed only during the collecting season, are as follows: 
Mr. Frederick V. Coville (Cornell University), as chief of 
the division, is engaged principally in its administrative work 
but is also doing some monographic and local botanical work 
on plants of eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. 
Mr. F. N. Rose (Wabash College), as assistant botanist and 
honorary assistant curator, has general charge of the herba- 
rium, makes the majority of critical miscellaneous identifica- 
tions, and is also engaged in working upon collections of 
Mexican plants. 
.Mr. L. H. Dewey (Mich. Agric. College) is engaged upon 
investigations of weeds, collating information of all kinds re- 
garding them; and combining this information,into form for 
popular use. ‘ 
Mr. G. H. Hicks (Mich. Agric. College; Univ. of Michi- 
gan) has charge of the pure seed investigations of the Divis- 
ion, maintaining and adding to the collection of seeds, and 
[264] 
