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The research work performed under the direction of Mr. 

 Seaver is too extended to admit of review here, and we must 

 refer you to the report of the Director of the Laboratories. 



In the report of the Librarian will be found an extended 

 account of what is probably the most important single 

 increase in our book collection that has ever been made. 



Although we have repeatedly recognized, in these Re- 

 ports, the Garden's need of increased endowment, yet, 

 because this need is such a real and compelling one, we 

 feel that it must again be brought to your attention. The 

 rapid extension of our cultivated area, the greater number 

 of plant houses, the establishment of new departments 

 and new publications, the acquirement of new botanical 

 literature, to say nothing of the accumulation of the older 

 works, which become steadily more scarce and costly, the 

 satisfaction of those public educational demands which 

 have been largely developed by our own activity, the 

 suitable compensation of scientific aids who have too long 

 been left to an unequal struggle with increasing living ex- 

 penses, — all these are but the natural, proper, and inevitable 

 increases of responsibility which mark the progress of a 

 successful institution such as this. 



We cannot close this report, somewhat in the nature of 

 a review of our seventeen years of life, without paying 

 a tribute to the almost unvarying record of genuine scien- 

 tific interest and faithful and unselfish service of our Staff. 

 There has perhaps never been a more perfect instance of 

 loving service to such an institution, service in which gen- 

 erous provision and faithful attention by the management 

 have been recognized and requited by an equally faithful 

 service in detail. Looking back over the progressive work 

 accomplished, though under the unfavorable conditions 

 accompanying a period of construction, in relation to the 

 gross expenditure, the results appear disproportionate; it 

 would appear as though every dollar must have done the 

 work of two. Respectfully submitted, 



H. H. Rusby, 



Chairman. 



