(8) 
Natural Features 
Continuous attention has been given to the protection of 
the natural woodlands against fire and vandalism by our 
patrols, and this precaution, together with the guard-rails 
along paths and trails, have prevented any appreciable 
damage to natural features. The night patrol of the 
grounds established last year has proved a valuable pre- 
caution, a number of fires having been extinguished by the 
night watchman before spreading, and disorder after dark 
has been very much reduced. A considerable number of 
dead trees have been cut down and this work is being con- 
tinued during the winter, but the tree mortality of the 
woodlands is not greater than in forests generally; the 
damage effected by the hickory bark beetle and the 
hemlock borer during the two previous years has been 
very much reduced, although both insects are still in 
evidence. Up to the present time there has been no 
appreciable diminution of beauty of the hemlock forest 
or of the valley of the Bronx River. 
Plants and Planting 
Additions have been made to all the collections of plants, 
much out-of-door planting having been accomplished both 
in the spring and in the autumn, largely by material from 
the nurseries, which have thus been appreciably reduced. 
In the spring, the flower gardens at conservatory range I 
were increased by about 500 running feet of herbaceous 
plants, backed by an equal length of low evergreens. The 
total length of herbaceous plantations now under cultiva- 
tion, including those about conservatory range 1 and 
its path approaches and those along the west border and 
in the valley of the herbaceous garden, aggregates consider- 
ably over one mile. A noteworthy decorative feature was 
added by the planting of low rhododendrons and other 
plants of the heath family around the lower basin of the 
fountain at the museum building, made possible by an 
appropriation from the income of the John Innes Kane 
