196 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 266. 



tural Colleges and Experiment Stations re- 

 quested the Smithsonian Institution to consider 

 the organization of post-graduate study in 

 Washington. The matter has been considered 

 by a committee of the regents, consisting of 

 ex-Senator Henderson, President W. L. Wilson, 

 Professor A. Graham Bell, President James B. 

 Angell and Representative Hill, which has 

 drawn up a report that concludes as follows : 



" The committee does not hesitate to express 

 its warm and decided sympathy with the gen- 

 eral purpose of the movement thus made by 

 the associated colleges. The object sought 

 commends itself to us all, and the zeal and 

 ability with which it has been pressed upon our 

 consideration by the very able and distin- 

 guished educators and scientists connected 

 with these colleges furnish ample assurance 

 that the consummation of the great and leading 

 object sought by them is only a question of time. 

 The material already collected in the bureaus 

 and departments of the government furnishes 

 a rich mine of the educational wealth that will 

 not be permitted to remain forever undevel- 

 oped. This material is now being constantly 

 enriched by the most valuable additions to its 

 present enormous wealth. Already it has in- 

 vited to the national capital many distinguished 

 scientists, anxious to avail themselves of the 

 superior advantages thus offered for investiga- 

 tion and research. 



"Your committee, however, is painfully im- 

 pressed with the fact that the powers of the 

 Smithsonian Institution as at present organized 

 are scarcely broad enough to embrace the work 

 proposed. And the committee is equally im- 

 pressed with the fact that even with enlarged 

 authority its present financial condition would 

 absolutely prevent anything like efficient and 

 creditable performance of the work contem- 

 plated. 



"It is well known to the members of this 

 board that a great wealth of material — material 

 which would be of immense utility in the suc- 

 cessful accomplishment of the purposes indi- 

 cated by the associated colleges — lies buried in 

 the crypts and cellars of the National Museum. 



"If our institution is unable for want of 

 room, as it undoubtedly is, even to place this 

 valuable material on exhibition for the public 



eyes, and as little to arrange it for scientific 

 uses, the problem of providing halls for lectures 

 and meeting the necessary expenditures inci- 

 dent to the work proposed becomes serious and 

 formidable in the extreme. Your committee is 

 not prepared to make definite recommendations 

 to the board for its final or ultimate action. 

 That which is clearly inexpedient today may 

 become not only expedient but eminently de- 

 sirable to-morrow." 



THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



From advance sheets of the administrative 

 reports for 1899 of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden, it appears that as contrasted with the 

 preceding year there was a slight increase in 

 revenue, and that by a decree of the Supreme 

 Court of the State of Missouri, affirming a de- 

 cision of the lower court, handed down some 

 years since, the Trustees of the Garden are 

 now empowered to sell real estate originally 

 inalienable, which, when improved, should sell 

 for at least $1,500,000. The Garden expenses 

 for the year were $32,174.36, in addition to 

 which a small sum was spent on special im- 

 provements. 



The Director's report shows that 71,021 visi- 

 tors to the Garden were counted during the 

 year, and that the collection of living plants, 

 which included 8009 species and varieties at 

 the beginning of the year, made a net gain of 

 1118, bringing the total at the end of the year 

 up to 9127. 



There were 32,890 sheets of specimens incor- 

 porated in the herbarium, which now comprises 

 340,350 sheets. The additions to the library com- 

 prise 642 books, 172 pamphlets, and 9042 cards, 

 bringing the contents of the library at the end 

 of the year up to 33,462 parts, of which 14,287 

 are books, and 19,175 pamphlets. The total 

 value of the herbarium is now stated to be 

 $51,052.52, and of the library $54,683.24. 



It is stated that as a result of the recent de- 

 cision of the Supreme Court touching the unim- 

 proved real estate constituting a part of the 

 endowment of the Garden, the Trustees are 

 now able to look forward to the gradual con- 

 version of a large amount of unproductive, 

 heavily taxed property into an income-produc- 



