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REPORT be THE HONORARY CURATOR OF 
ONOMIC COLLECTIONS. 
To THE Boarp oF ScrentiFic DirEcTors, 
New York Botanical GARDEN, 
Gentlemen: JI have the honor to submit herewith my report 
as Curator of the Economic Collections for the year of 1898. 
Immediately after my appointment, the Director-in-Chief 
indicated his ideas for establishing this Department upon a 
more distinctly and pila ee educational basis than is 
customary in institutions of the kind. This was, in brief, 
instead of confining the exhibits to a mere accumulation of 
economic products, to represent as far as possible the indus- 
tries connected with their production and manufacture. In 
this way, the guide-book to the collections which will ulti- 
mately be published, may be in the nature of a compend of 
economic botany. Recognizing that the realization of this 
plan would be difficult and slow, it was understood that the 
ordinary accumulation of specimens should proceed at the 
same time. This arrangement involves the consideration of 
two more or less distinct divisions of the collections. For 
convenience and intelligibility, the former will be hereafter 
referred to as the ‘‘ Industrial Collection,” the latter as the 
“¢ General Collection.” 
Four methods of obtaining exhibits were open to us, namely, 
purchase, collection, exchange and donation. 
Any extensive accumulation by purchase was precluded by 
the fact that no adequate fund was available. 
The same condition restricted acquisitions by collection 
chiefly to local products. 
For exchange purposes we had very little material on hand, 
but experience had taught us that institutions having material 
to exchange would not be slow to supply it upon our promise 
to make future returns, provided we should announce a rea- 
sonably promising plan for doing so. 
he amount of material to be obtained through donation 
was largely problematical, though we were informed of 
