1897 | OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESEARCH IN BOTANY 87 
encouraged to select special problems and carry them along to 
some useful and adequate solution. For such investigations it 
is the policy of the institution to provide any reasonable facility 
in the way of special apparatus, material and literature. The 
university does not hesitate at expense if there be the oppor- 
tunity of developing some important research under its super- 
vision. 
Library — The general botanical library contains about 2200 
bound volumes and 3800 separates. Especial care has been 
exercised to procure complete sets of periodicals, and practi- 
cally all the important’ botanical journals, with the exception 
of Curtis’ Magazine, Oesterreichische Botanisches Zeitschrift and 
Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, have been purchased entire or are 
easily available. Certain special fields are well represented in 
the collection, but it is the plan of the department to furnish 
exhaustive series of literature only when a definite problem is to 
be settled. Of course all the botanical bibliographies are at 
hand, and there is absolutely no reason in any given case why 
everything that has been done upon any given topic should not 
be brought to light. 
The physiological section includes about 200 volumes and 
1000 separates shelved in the laboratory. Literature not pur- 
chasable may be obtained by loan from a German institute by a 
personal arrangement of the instructor. 
The mycological and algological collections are likewise 
shelved in the respective laboratories, and a large section of 
the taxonomic library is shelved in the herbarium. 
Collections — Besides several hundred specimens of wood from 
different parts of the world and as many jars of alcoholic and 
formalose material, the herbarium with its 200,000 specimens (in. 
round numbers) is an important part of the equipment. It is 
being developed upon the broadest basis. Plants of all orders 
and from every part of the world are either already included i in 
_its cases or are among its desiderata. It now serves as avery 
adequate reference collection for North American taxonomy and 
is rich also i in Mexican, ee African, and Lene material. 
