57 
in the Public Conservatories, through the distribution of the col- 
lection previously accumulated in the nurseries of the Depart- 
ment of Parks near the Lorillard Mansion in Bronx Park. 
Commissioner has directed that these nurseries be used only for 
the propagation of decorative plants suitable for planting in the 
public parks, and will thus avoid the large expense of maintain- 
ing there a miscellaneous greenhouse collection. The speci- 
mens thus obtained are now being labelled and incorporated into 
the public collections. 
r. S. H. Hamilton, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
Sciences, has been commissioned to collect material for the Gar- 
den during his expedition to Santiago, Cuba, and vicinity. Mr. 
Hamilton proposes to secure a large collection of both plants 
and animals during his trip, which will be extended over some 
eight weeks. While stopping off at the Bahamas on his way to 
Santiago, he obtained a small collection of museum and herba- 
rium specimens, which has already been received. 
. The large collection of fungi recently presented to the Garden 
by Dr. John S. Billings has now been incorporated into the her- 
barium. This collection contains much valuable and interesting 
material ; besides numerous specimens collected by Dr. Billings 
in the vicinity of Washington, D. C., there is a nearly complete 
series of Ravenel’s Texan collections; it is particularly rich in 
representatives of the Sphaeriales, and includes many specimens 
of types or of authenticated specimens from the herbaria of Rav- 
enel, Curtis, Schweinitz, Fries, Berkeley, Broome and other older 
mycologists. 
he series of herbarium specimens of Mexican plants col- 
lected in the States of Jalisco, Mexico, Zacatecas and Lower 
California by Mr. Leon Diquet and presented to the Garden by 
the Duke de Loubat, has just been mounted for the herbarium. 
Other noteworthy series of Mexican plants recently added are 
the J. G. Schaffner collection, secured through the purchase of 
the Vigener Herbarium, and especially rich in the flora of middle 
Mexico, particularly the State of San Luis Potosi, and the C. L. 
Smith collection consisting of specimens from the region of the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec and contiguous states in southern 
Mexico. 
