78 



ties 01* from individuals ;— Folios 59 volumes, quartos 107 vols., 

 octavos, and those of lesser fold 263 vols., pamphlets 2231. 

 Total number 2660. These additions do not exhibit so many 

 volumes as do those of the preceding year, but they are of 

 much greater value and tend to enhance the importance of the 

 Library for consultation, — such for examples, as Audubon's 

 "Birds of America," (elephant folio) 4 vols.; Holbrook's 

 Ilerpetology, 5 vols., quarto; Nuttall's Continuation of Me - 

 chaux's " Sylva Americana," 3 vols., royal octavo; Parkinson 

 "Theatre of Plants," 1 vol folio, London, 1640; Rees' En- 

 cyclopaedia, 87 vols., quarto ; and a Portfolio, containing a com- 

 plete set of the maps of the United States' Coast Survey, with 

 fifty-one of Maury's Wind and Current Charts accompanying. 

 Constant attention is also being given to as perfect a completion 

 of files of Newspapers as is possible. The arrangement of old 

 MSS. accounts, bills, &c., is in progress, and the collecting of 

 sea journals, log books, and other records of weather, is earn- 

 estly recommended as bearing on the interest of the Listitute 

 in reference to its Library conveniences. 



Horticultural Department. There have been two exhibi- 

 tions during the past year, viz : A public display of a flower of 

 the Victoria Regia, on Friday afternoon and evening, August 

 12th ; and the annual exhibition of Fruits and Flowers, on 

 Thursday and Friday, September 22d and 23d. 



The Victoria Regia, a native of the Amazon, was raised by 

 Mr. John Fisk Allen, of this city, from seed, and six months 

 from the time of its germination it produced the first flower 

 ever blossoming in New England. Its fourth flower was 

 ofiered for exhibition to the Essex Institute, and all the pro- 

 ceeds arising from a small entrance fee, was presented to the 

 Society by Mr. A., to promote the general cause of science. 

 This particular specimen was of great beauty and afibrded an 

 excellent opportunity to amateurs and others to examine 

 critically and minutely its structure. A leaf of the plant was 

 also furnished ; the flower on closing was preserved in alcohol 

 for the Herbarium, and specimens of its pollen preserved and 



