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police, but when brought before the city magistrates it was 
discovered that, while forbidden by rules of the Deparment 
of Parks, no penalty had apparently been fixed for such 
misdemeanors, and the prisoners were discharged. In reply 
to an inquiry by the Commissioner of Parks, the Corporation 
Counsel confirmed, as his opinion, this condition, and sug- 
gested that the attention of the Mayor’s Marshal, who con- 
trols the licenses of public conveyances, be brought to this 
nuisance, and this has been done, but as yet without appre- 
ciable diminution of the annoyances. 
Plants and Planting. 
1. Herbaceous Grounds. This tract has been kept under 
high cultivation, and the specimens as fully labeled as our 
available force would permit. Considerable additions have 
been made to the individual beds from specimens brought 
from the nurseries and received from various other sources, 
while some species cultivated last year have not been carried 
through for one reason or another. The number of kinds of 
plants grown here during the year is about three thousand. 
During the autumn an extension of this system of beds was 
made to the northward, across the driveway and paths lead- 
ing to the hemlock forest, for the purpose of establishing 
the series of plantations to teach structural botany, and twelve 
additional beds were laid out and stocked with specimens for 
this purpose. This ground was graded, so as to slope to the 
central stream, and may be brought to a finished condition 
early in the spring. 
2. fruticetum. The construction of roads and paths 
through the tract devoted to the exhibition of shrubs occupy- 
ing the plain northeast of the museum building has not yet 
been completed, though work upon it is in an advanced state, 
and these operations have delayed the finishing of the sur- 
faces and have consequently deferred the permanent Jplant- 
ing of a considerable part of the collection. The collection 
was entirely replanted and moved in the spring, much of it 
into permanent position, and the work here is likely to be 
