2 
1890] OPEN LETTERS 419 
But on July 1, 1896, the Museum assumed complete charge of the Herbarium, 
being enabled to provide for it through an increase of $10,000 in the appro- 
priations of the Museum, added by Congress for this special purpose. The 
disbursement of this sum for the National Herbarium is made, therefore, 
through the Smithsonian Institution. Two assistant curators, Dr. J. N. Rose 
and Mr. C. L. Pollard, have been transferred from the Department of Agri- 
culture to the Museum, with the necessary clerical help, and a new assistant 
curator of the cryptogamic collections, Mr. O. F. Cook, appointed, the 
botanist of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Frederick V. Coville, con- 
tinuing to serve, without salary, as curator. Provided with a force of ten 
people, in addition to the curator, situated in fireproof quarters, and managed 
by the Smithsonian Institution, the National Herbarium is now favorably 
situated to continue its development as the repository of the botanical col- 
lections acquired by the various branches of our government. 
The Division of Botany in the Department of Agriculture has now a force 
of twenty persons, including clerks and laborers, and funds to the amount of 
$29,000 available for the expenditures of the present fiscal year. Mr. Fred- 
erick V. Coville is botanist and chief of division and is especially engaged 
tographic work of the division, and is conducting a special series of experi- 
ments on the germination of weed seeds. Mr. W. W. Tracy, recently 
cted with the 
t of the divi- 
one competitors, 
The Division of Botany as at present organized is an establishment 
