10 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ Jan., 
of transferring the herbaria was at once begun, and is now 
practically completed, though much work in arranging and 
distributing specimens is yet to be done, and for the first time 
these invaluable scientific collections are secure. It is too 
soon to say that this disposition will be final. It isolates the 
plants from the other natural history collections in the museum 
building on Fourth avenue, and when this shall have been 
extended it may be deemed wise to deposit the herbaria in 
the extension, and thus bring them close to the museums o 
geology and paleontology containing Professor Newberry’s 
immense collections in paleo-botany. The present disposi- 
tion makes them absolutely secure from fire, which is a source 
of great satisfaction. 
€ room now devoted to the botanical collections is sixty 
feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and sixteen feet in height. 
It is lighted by day through large, high windows at each end, 
by the incandescent electric light during evenings and gloomy 
weather, being an expansion of the system used throughout 
two plate glass doors opening the entire height, secured by 
the Jenks’ lock and fitting very closely to exclude dust. There 
are forty-eight compartments to a case, each six inches in 
height in the clear, separated vertically and laterally by one- 
half inch oak boards. This height gives the greatest economy 
of room consistent with stacking the specimens without fear 
are strong enough for this arrangement. In the botanical 
arrangement, the sequence of orders and genera of Phanero- 
