(95) 
THE MUSEUM OF ECONOMIC BOTANY* 
This occupies the entire main floor, and comprises both 
crude and refined products of plants used in the arts, the 
sciences, and the industries, as well as illustrative photo- 
graphs and drawings. The specimens, at present totaling 
nearly 10,000, are classified primarily as products, in- 
cluding (eods drugs, fibers, gums, resins, sugars, rubbers, 
spices and flavoring-agents, dye-stuffs, tanning-materials, 
plant-constituents, fixed- and volatile-oils, cork, starches, 
and others as indicated by the accompanying floor plan. 
The articles pertaining to each of these primary classes are 
then arranged in their botanical sequence, proceeding 
from the lower to the higher plants. 
The arrangement of the larger groups is as follows: 
Foods and fibers occupy the west hall, the former in cases 
on the north side, the latter on the south. The west wing 
is mainly given over to exhibits other than foods, fibers, 
drugs, and woods. The east hall contains the drugs, 
while to the east wing are assigned woods and wood-pro- 
ducts, and a collection illustrating North American den- 
drology. Not all of the cases are as yet in place, additions 
being installed from time to time, as the growth of the 
Museum requires. In the following numbering, allowance 
is made for such additions. 
Fibers. Cases 1 to 30.—In the first case of the series 
devoted to fibers may be found cotton, now the most im- 
portant of the vegetable hairs and fibers. It is derived 
from the fruit of the cotton plant (Gossypium), being the 
hairs that cover the surface of the seeds. The fruits from 
several different kinds of cotton-plants may be seen with 
the cotton bursting from the capsule, while some of the 
many different products are also shown. 
The fiber of other plants, derived from leaves, stem, bark, 
roots, and other organs, is of great economic importance 
and is used, either in practically its natural condition, as 
* For more detailed information, see our Guide to the Economic Museum. 
