REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SCIENTIFIC 



DIRECTORS FOR THE YEAR 1910 

 To the Board of Managers of the New York Botan- 



(Presented and ordered printed January 9, 191 1.) 



Gentlemen: In submitting our report for the year 1910, 

 the Scientific Directors request your attention to several 

 lines of the Garden's work which we deem worthy of 

 special consideration. 



Probably the most important scientific work in which 

 the Garden has engaged is what might be called the col- 

 lective investigation of the North American flora. The 

 fruit of this work will consist in the publication of our 

 systematic work on the subject, of which fourteen parts 

 have now appeared, and ultimately that of some analytical 

 work which shall seek to explain the composition and origin 

 of our flora in its relation to that of the world. It is, how- 

 ever, the work itself in which we are here especially inter- 

 ested. Ever since the foundation of the Garden, the ground 

 work by which alone the necessary data for these studies 

 could be secured has been energetically and persistently 

 pursued. All important collections offered by outsiders 

 have been secured and all contributions studied, besides 

 which we have endeavored to determine the most important 

 directions in which our own explorations could supplement 

 the work already performed. Out of the limited means 

 at our command, we have conducted the following ex- 

 plorations in territory outside of the United States proper. 



To Nova Scotia and Newfoundland 1 



To Mexico 7 



To Honduras 2 



To Costa Rica 1 



To Panama 3 



To Bermuda 1 



