BARNHART: HISTORICAL SKETCH Lini 
correlated labors of devoted members than to the efforts of any 
one man. This decade saw many changes, recorded in and in 
some cases reflected by the Bulletin. The history of the Bulletin 
before and during this period is admirably summed up in a report 
printed in the second number of the seventeenth volume.* The 
journal which had been established as a private venture, and main- 
tained as such for twelve years, was formally taken over by the 
Club at the beginning of the year 1882, and an associate editor 
chosen; just in time, for "the morning of April 11 witnessed the 
death of the genial, talented and earnest editor." Succeeding 
years saw a rather kaleidoscopic change in the editorial board— 
there were ten different members in eight years, the largest number 
at any one time being six—yet the publication showed steady 
growth and improvement. In 1886, under the editorship of 
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton and Frederick James Hamilton Mer- 
rill, an index to recent American botanical literature was under- 
taken, which greatly enhanced the value of the Bulletin to its 
readers, and has been maintained in modified form until the 
present time. 
In April, 1888, appeared the Preliminary Catalogue of Antho- 
phyta and Pteridophyta within one hundred miles of New York 
City, based upon the work of the members of the Torrey Club up 
to that time. It was а mere check-list, intended as a manual to 
be used by members for manuscript records of further work, but 
it was much too extensive for publication in the Bulletin, and was 
issued separately in pamphlet form. Before the end of the year, 
however, the need for a regular series of Club publications in 
monographic form had made itself felt, and the establishment of the 
Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club had been authorized; the 
first number made its appearance the following May. 
At about the same time the Club began the promotion of a 
project for a botanical garden. Ап appeal for such an institution 
in New York City was adopted January 8, 1889, and distributed 
. with the number of the Bulletin for that month. The effort met 
with various setbacks, and the plans required much modification, 
but it was the movement inaugurated at this time that eventually 
resulted in the establishment of the New York Botanical Garden 
in Bronx Park. 
* Bull. Torrey Club 17: 48—52. 1890. 
