January 24, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



157 



some five thousand specimens, all authorita- 

 tively named, and many representing most re- 

 mote localities. 



The arrival of the Strecker material wiU in- 

 crease the Museum collections by fully one 

 hundred thousand specimens, among which are 

 several hundred 'types.' Mr. William Beuten- 

 miiller, the curator of entomology, vfill per- 

 sonally attend to the details of transportation. 

 The Museum will also receive the 'Strecker 

 Library.' 



THE MIS80VBI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



From advance sheets of the administrative 

 report of the Garden for 1901, it appears that 

 during the past year $44,409 was spent on the 

 maintenance and improvement of the estab- 

 lishment, $5,287.60 less than the net income 

 for the year after providing for publications 

 and certain fixed events designated in Henry 

 Shaw's will, the total gross receipts being 

 $125,690.73. 



91,262 persons visited the Garden, about 45 

 per cent, of this number on the first Sunday 

 afternoon each in June and September, the 

 only two holidays on which the Garden can be 

 opened to the public. 



The collection of living plants, which in 

 1900 contained 9,194 species or varieties, has 

 been increased to 9,967. Nearly 3,000 surplus 

 plants were distributed to hospitals and 

 schools. Exchange relations were maintained 

 with other botanical establishments, and in 

 addition to what was derived from these 

 sources the living collections were increased 

 by an expenditure of $2,829.61. 



16,256 sheets of specimens were incorpo- 

 rated in the herbarium ,on which $1,175.39 was 

 spent, and the herbarium is stated to consist 

 now of about 365,000 specimens, valued at 

 $54,743.00. 



$2,688.71 was spent on the library, to which 

 929 books and 254 pamphlets were added, and 

 the library now contains about 36,000 books 

 and pamphlets, valued at $60,305.00, in ad- 

 dition to which there are about 275,500 index 

 cards. 



The extent of the exchange relations of the 

 Garden is shown by the Director's statement 

 that 1,184 serial publications are received at 



the library, of which 1,083 are received in ex- 

 change for the Reports of the Garden. 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. 



Several announcements of plans and prog- 

 ress are made by the National Geographic So- 

 ciety. A handsome building, costing $50,000, 

 is being erected for the Society and as a me- 

 morial to its first President, Hon. Gardiner 

 Greene Hubbard. The building is located on 

 the corner of M and 16th Streets, in the cen- 

 tral part of the city. 



The annual meeting of the Society was held 

 on the 10th of January, Alexander Graham 

 Bell in the chair. The membership of the 

 Society is now about 2,700, representing every 

 State in the Union. The following directors 

 were elected for three years : 



Alexander Graham Bell, General A. W. 

 Greely, chief signal ofiicer of the War Depart- 

 ment ; Henry Gannett, chief geographer of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey; Angelo Heilprin, 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; 

 Gifford Pinchot, forester of the U. S. Govern- 

 ment; O. H. Tittmann, director of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey; W J McGee, ethnologist 

 in charge of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology, and Russell Hinman, New York City. 



The National Geographic Society is already 

 forming plans for the great International Con- 

 gress of Geographers which will be held under 

 its auspices in Washington in 1904. It is the 

 first time the Congress has met in the West- 

 ern Hemisphere. These geographic Con- 

 gresses are of international importance and it 

 is expected that representatives from all parts 

 of the world will attend. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 At the meeting of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences on January 6, M. Bouquet de la Grye, 

 the engineer, succeeded to the presidency. M. 

 Albert Gaudry, the paleontologist, was elected 

 vice-president, and will be elected president 

 next year. 



The Lavoisier medal of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences has been awarded to Dr. Emil 

 Fischer, professor of chemistry in the Univer- 

 sity of Betlin. 



