people ; but for support of the life and soul of the Garden, as a 

 valuable and progressive scientific institution, we must look mainly 

 to the public-spirited citizens of New York. Much has been 

 already done, as a glance at its work will show. The Directors 

 have expended nearly $300,000 of privately contributed funds 

 and have invested a fund of about $335,000, similarly derived as 

 already stated ; and in gifts of plants, books, apparatus and the 

 deposit of collections, have received about $225,000 more, mak- 

 ing a total of about $860,000 contributed by individuals. 



The Garden has won an honored and a world-wide name for 



tine work ? Remittances may be made to either of the under- 

 signed. 



C. F. Cox, N. L. Britton, 



Treasurer, Director-in- Chief, 



Grand Central Station. N. Y. Botanical Garden. 



In behalf of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, 



EARLY EUROPEAN BOTANISTS IN ' JAPAN. 



For our first knowledge of the rich botanical treasures of 

 Japan, we are indebted to commerce and the Dutch East India 

 Company. With the exception of a few years (16 13- 1623) in 

 the early part of the seventeenth century when the English had 

 a small trading-post in Japan, the country was closed to all 

 foreign nations except the Portuguese, the Dutch and the 

 Chinese. In 1640 the Portuguese were expelled and until the 

 middle of the last century, entrance was denied to all except 

 the Dutch and the Chinese. 



Three illustrious names, Kaempfer, Thunberg and Siebold, 

 head the list of European workers upon the flora of Japan. It 

 is interesting to note that each of these men went out in the 

 employ of the Dutch East India Company ; that each made the 



