1895.] Botanical Work of the Government. 265 
testing commercial samples with reference to their purity and 
germinative capacity. 
Mr. C. L. Pollard (Columbia College) is acting as assistant 
curator of the herbarium, and is engaged at present in num- 
bering specimens already mounted, distributing newly 
mounted material, and arranging the plants properly upon the 
shelves. 
Mr. A. G. Pieters (Mich. Agric. College; Cornell Univ.) 
is acting as an assistant of Mr. Hicks, and is engaged partic- 
ularly in making germination tests of commercial seed. 
Mr. V. K. Chesnut (Univ. of Calif.; Univ. of Chicago) is 
engaged upon an investigation, both pharmacological and 
physiological, of poisonous and medicinal plants. 
Mr. Marcus E. Fones (lowa College) is engaged in working 
up a report on the collection of plants made by him in south- 
ern Utah and northern Arizona during the season of 1894. 
Messrs, Scribner, Kearney and Smith are also connected 
with this Division until July 1, but their work wili be men- 
tioned in connection with the new Division of Agrostology. 
The work of the Botanical Division during the coming year 
will in the main be an amplification of the lines of work already 
under way, and possibly the assumption of one or two addi- 
tional investigations. 
2. DIVISION OF VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOL- 
OGY. It will be noted that ‘‘Physiology” has been added to 
the title of this Division by the last Congress, enabling work 
which had already been begun to be prosecuted upon a broader 
basis, and recognizing the fact that in the study of diseased 
plants the normal life processes must first be understood be- 
fore the diseased organism can be studied intelligently. The 
appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1895, was $26, 100; 
for the year ending June 30, 1896, it is $26,300. The care of 
the extensive collection, correspondence and system of index- 
ing is shared by all the staff at Washington. The laboratory 
investigations are conducted at Washington, Eustis (F la.) 
and Santa Ana (Calif.), and are in charge of the following 
staff: 
Mr. B. T. Galloway (University of Missouri), as Chief of 
the Division, has charge of the administrative work, general 
direction of all investigations, and edits all bulletins and re- 
Ports. In such time as is left to him, he is investigating the 
conditions affecting the health of plants under glass, and also 
one or two groups of fungi. 
