157 



These lectures and demonstrations have served to give to pupils 

 n a crowded city a close contact with nature, and a breadth of 

 'iew and inspiration such as could never be obtained under the 

 nore restricted conditions of the class room alone. 



C. Stuart Gager. 



FIRST GRANT FROM THE STUDENTS' 

 RESEARCH FUND. 



Under an appropriation made by the Board of Managers at 

 the annual meeting held last January, a grant of #150 has been 

 made to Mr. Charles Budd Robinson from the accumulated 

 income of the Students' Research Fund for the purpose of 

 enabling him to complete his monograph of the North American 

 species of the genus Cham, or brittleworts. 



These interesting plants, which have been little studied in 

 America, inhabit fresh water and brackish ponds and slow flow.- 

 ing streams, being entirely submerged, and thus quite unknown 

 to most people. Many of them are very beautiful, however, 

 and make interesting subjects for aquaria, though the offensive 

 odor of some prevents this usage. Many of them absorb a great 

 deal of lime from the waters in which they grow, and inasmuch 

 as some ponds are very densely occupied by the plants, consider- 

 able thicknesses of carbonate of lime become deposited. Mr. 

 Robinson's studies show that a much larger number of species 

 inhabit North America than has previously been supposed, and 

 several of those studied by him are new to science. The collec- 

 tion which has formed the basis of his work was accumulated by 

 the late Dr. Timothy Field Allen, and presented by him to the 

 garden in 190 1 (see Journal 2: 52-54). Considerable addi- 

 tions have been made to this collection during the studies of Mr. 

 Robinson and it is one of the most complete in the world. 



Mr. Robinson has been a student at the garden for parts of 

 three years, and during portions of his time with us has held one 

 of the scholarships provided by the Board of Managers. He is 

 a graduate of Dalhousie College, Nova Scotia, and continued his 

 studies at Cambridge University, England. During his residence 



