(85 ) 
PRESIDENT’s Room, January 6, 1908. 
Pror. N. L. Brirton, 
New York Botanical Garden, 
Bronx Park, New York. 
My dear Dr. Britton: 
It gives me great pleasure to advise you that the Trustees, 
at their meeting to-day passed a resolution making the Direc- 
tor of the New York Botanical Garden ex-officio a member 
of the Faculty of Pure Science, with the rank of professor. 
Hoping that this action will be agreeable to you, 
Tam 
Sincerely yours, 
(signed) NicHoLas Murray BuTer, 
President. 
At our meeting of December 14, Dr. Britton was authorized 
to accept this appointment, and we recommend that this 
action be confirmed by the Board of Managers. 
The curtailment of the Garden’s income available for scien- 
tific and educational purposes, resulting from the decreased 
appropriation for maintenance made by the city, has been a 
source of serious concern to us, and demands the most 
earnest attention of the Board of Managers. 
Owing to the necessity for using a large portion of the 
Garden’s income from membership dues and invested funds 
for purposes of ordinary maintenance, as has been made 
evident to the Scientific Directors by the reports of the Direc- 
tor-in-Chief, we have recommended very small allowances 
from Garden income for the educational and scientific work 
of the Institution. The cost of maintaining collections of 
living plants is cumulative, and it is a self-evident proposition 
that such cost must increase with the extent of the collections. 
The Scientific Directors realize, however, that it would be 
most unfortunate to stop the growth of the collections, which 
have now become of international importance, or to decrease 
in any way the educational power of the Garden. The initial 
stage of such an institution as this, represents the inauguration 
