116 
botanical origin, but with the political and financial interests con- 
cerned in their production, making the latter, and the relative ad- 
vantages which they offer to the consumer, the central point 
about which other considerations cluster. e do not care, for 
instance, to compare a cacao of Panama with an identical one 
om H 
perty ; but s 
samples of this seed as represent distinct ics resulting 
fnom climate, culture or breeding processes require our careful 
attention. er words, this department of the museu 
templates the silnseeeon . all varieties and forms, the anaeenve 
characters which are natural, including thus all cultivated 
forms of fra ts and vegetables, as well as wild products and many 
hand, or in process of preparation, the more sapstad of which 
will be aes later. Such articles as are wholly of foreign 
consumption, as well as production, are less readily obtainable, 
and reliance must be placed upon the slow, uncertain and frag- 
mentary services of travelers and foreign correspondents, or upon 
the speedier and far more satisfactory, though more expensive 
method of sending our representatives abroad. It is very greatly 
to our interest that a special endowment should be available for 
the employment of the latter method. 
Iilustration of botanical origin is by no means so simple. 
becomes, indeed, very complicated in those cases where there 
as been an ieelliggn mar and direction of natural laws 
in securing the evolution of new forms with pre-determined char- 
acters. The simpler ata consist of herbarium specimens 
and pictures. It is intended to illustrate by the pictures the 
habits of growth and eet surroundings, as well as the specific 
plant-characters. These collections require special visits of a 
tanical collectors have been notoriously negligent in collecting 
representatives of useful plants. Very few of the plants yielding 
