(232) 
These books occupy a specially constructed cabinet which 
stands near the center of the reading room. 
Manuscript letters of botanists, as well as many portraits 
of botanists, are also on file. 
THE HERBARIUM 
The herbarium consists of dried specimens of plants sys- 
tematically arranged in cases; it occupies the greater portion 
of several rooms on the upper floor of the museum building, 
and is available for consultation by permission. It contains 
prepared specimens of all kinds of plants from all quaters 
of the globe, and is the most extensive and complete col- 
lection of its kind in America. It comprises the Garden 
herbarium and the Columbia University herbarium. The 
latter is one of the oldest collections of its kind in the 
United States, having been begun by Dr. John Torrey 
soon after the commencementofthelastcentury. After half 
a century of natural growth several large herbaria were 
incorporated in it and large sets of special collections were 
added to it. The Garden herbarium was begun with the 
inception of the Garden. It has grown rapidly and now 
far excels the Columbia herbarium in the number of speci- 
mens. ‘The rapid growth of the Garden herbarium and its 
importance is due to the fact that it is built up of approxi- 
mately thirty different herbaria which represent plants of 
all groups from all parts of the globe. To this as a basis 
have been added miscellaneous collections and the first 
sets of the plants secured by members of the Garden staff 
while exploring in different parts of the New World and 
the Old. 
The great majority of specimens are mounted on her- 
barium sheets, but many thousand specimens, such as 
bulky fungi, fruits, seeds, and other parts of plants not 
suitable for placing flat on herbarium sheets are contained 
in cardboard boxes of multiple sizes. 
The herbarium now comprises approximately one and 
one-half million specimens. All groups of the flowerless 
plants and flowering plants are copiously represented. 
