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REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR-IN-CHIEF ON HIS 
VISIT TO THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
To THE ScIENTIFIC DrrEcTors, 
Gentlemen. By permission of Mr. D. O. Mills, President of 
the Board of Managers, I was absent from the Garden for the 
four weeks between August 16th and Sept. 13th ona visit to the 
Royal Gardens, at Kew, England. 
My visit was for the purpose of comparing certain unnamed 
specimens in our collections with authentically named specimens 
in the collections of that institution, and to study certain cul- 
tural methods and the arrangement of museum, conservatory and 
out-of-door collections. About five hundred specimens were 
taken from our herbarium for comparison, twelve of which 
proved to represent species new to science, and a large number 
of others are of particular scientific interest as illustrating mor- 
phological facts hitherto unknown and extensions of geographic 
distribution. 
The greater part of my time while at Kew was given to the 
study of the collections of North American sedges (Cyperaceae) 
for the more complete and accurate descriptions of these plants 
in my monograph now in preparation; the examination of these 
collections was the more important on account of the prolonged 
study already given to them by Mr. C. B. Clarke of Kew, who 
has for many years been preparing a monograph of the Cyper- 
aceae of the world. Mr. Clarke most obligingly gave me con- 
tinuous aid during my visit, including the use of much of his 
manuscript, and critically examined many of our specimens at 
my request. I am deeply grateful for his advice and assist- 
ance, 
A considerable number of specimens of plants of the West In- 
dies obtained by our collectors in Porto Rico, Cuba and by my- 
self in St. Kitts, were also compared and satisfactorily determined, 
and I also took advantage of the opportunity to examine the type 
specimens of many species of North American plants, especial 
attention being given to some of the Crassulaceae. 
