41 
nautralist who visited the Philippines between 1835 and 1839, and 
whose collections have been studied by a number of European 
botanists. This collection is most important, as forming a basis 
for the study of the flora. The Columbia herbarium also con- 
tains a set of the specimens obtained by the United States Pacific 
Exploring Expedition under Captain Charles Wilkes the 
years 1838 to 1842, including many from the Philippine "Telands, 
In addition to the study of thé herbarium specimens above 
described, the Garden will grow living plants and seeds obtained 
y Mr. Williams, who is also under instructions to secure and 
ship such specimens as he may be able to obtain for the Museums, 
the plan being to bring cche all the plants and plant products 
of the Philippines that the means at our disposal will permit. A 
present the work will have to go forward slowly, but it is hoped 
that funds may be obtained to enlarge it as we proceed. 
It is planned to keep the herbarium specimens in a series by 
themselves for a number of years, and thus bring them together 
in convenient arrangement for study. This part of the work has 
been put in charge of Mr. C. B. Robinson, a graduate of Dal- 
housie College, and sometime student at Cambridge, England, 
who has been a student at the Garden for some months, and has 
recently been granted a resident research scholarship. 
N. L. Britton. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. MacDougal left on January 13 for an inspection of the 
new Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution at 
Tucson, Arizona, which was described and illustrated in the Jan- 
uary number of the JournaL. He writes that the plans for the 
building and its equipment, prepared by Mr. Coville and himself 
at the request of the Carnegie Institution, were carried out in a 
very satisfactory manner, and that Dr. Cannon, the resident in- 
vestigator, has already commenced a series of investigations on 
desert plants, and that the facilities of the laboratory are already 
being taken advantage of, Professor Volney M. Spalding, of the 
University of Michigan, being at work there. 
