INTRODUCTION 3 



banquet at the Men's Faculty Club was well attended and proved to be an 

 enjoyable occasion with Dr. C. Stuart Gager, President of the Club, presiding. 

 Excerpts were read from many letters of felicitation from various organiza- 

 tions and from individual botanists who could not come. 



On Tuesday morning the meeting was held at the New York Botanical 

 Garden with Dr. William J. Robbins presiding. Dr. Robbins first gave a very 

 interesting account of the history of the Botanical Garden, illustrated with a 

 number of slides showing the activities of the Torrey Botanical Club in the 

 establishment of the Garden, and in the erection of the museum building and 

 greenhouses. Following this talk four papers on different aspects of taxonomy 

 were given by Drs. H. A. Gleason, H. K. Svenson, E. D. Merrill, and 



F. D. Kern. These make up the last half of this number of Torre ya. At the 

 end of the program the accompanying picture of the group was taken on the 

 steps of the museum building. The weather still seemed too threatening for 

 lunch to be served out-of-doors, and arrangements were made for it on the 

 main floor of the museum building. Fortunately, however, it cleared sufficiently 

 for the inspection of the gardens in the afternoon. 



On Wednesday, June 24th, the program was continued at the Boyce 

 Thompson Institute for Plant Research. Here Dr. P. W. Zimmerman presided 

 and Dr. William Crocker told of the establishment and growth of the Institute 

 during the past twenty years. Three papers on growth problems were pre- 

 sented by Drs. L. O. Kunkel, P. W. Zimmerman, and O. Riddle. Following 

 the program the Institute served a very nice luncheon ; and then dividing the 

 visitors into small groups, the staff of the Institute conducted everyone through 

 the building and greenhouses on exceedingly well organized tours with a 

 minimum of congestion or confusion. As reference was made in the last para- 

 graph to threatening weather, and rain will be mentioned again toward the 

 end of the volume, it is perhaps excusable to state that this was a perfect June 

 day, and the rose arbor at the Institute was at its height of bloom. 



In the evening Dr. William J. Robbins gave a lecture on vitamins at the 

 American Museum of Natural History. 



On Thursday the group met at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Dr. C. Stuart 

 Gager presided and told of building the Botanic Garden, which has many 

 phases of activity, is composed of a number of diverse unit gardens, and serves 

 the public in many ways, on an originally unattractive piece of waste land. 

 Four papers were given in the formal program by Drs. G. H. Shull, S. A. Cain, 



G. M. Reed, and A. F. Blakeslee. Luncheon was served in the Brooklyn 

 Museum, and this was followed by an inspection of the gardens. 



The papers presented on Wednesday and Thursday, and an account of 

 the field trip of Friday and Saturday, will be published in the second number 



of TORREYA. II H. C. 



