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director-in-chief of the Garden. A large and beautiful display 
of plants and flowers was installed in codperation with the 
Horticultural Society of New York, and suitable prizes awarded 
from the income of the William R. Sands Fund. 
A noteworthy feature of the Central Display Greenhouse is 
provision within it of space for lectures, meetings and special 
displays, facilities for which have long been needed. At the 
suggestion of President Thompson, the plans were drawn so as 
to provide a central space with a reinforced concrete floor over a 
commodious cellar, upon which audiences of about 200 persons 
may be comfortably seated. This was at once taken advantage 
of and public lectures were delivered as follows: 
November 15. Cycads and Sago Palms, by Dr. N. L. Britton. 
November 22. Tropical Orchids, by Mr. George V. Nash. 
November 29. Tropical Ferns and Their Relatives, by Dr. 
H. A. Gleason. 
Other series of lectures will follow. The arrangements proved 
wholly satisfactory and the surroundings, formed of palms, are 
unique and beautiful. 
The permanent planting of the two ends of the Central Dis- 
play House will be chosen from plants of warm-temperate and 
subtropical regions. The collections primarily installed have 
been taken from House 13 of Public Conservatory Range 1, 
where the plants have been greatly crowded for several years; 
this House 13 will now be largely occupied by pees drawn from 
House 1, also overcrowded. 
The greenhouse for orchids, much smaller than the Central 
Display House, will provide abundant space for the orchid 
collection as now constituted, as well as for its increase; it is de- 
sirable that this collection be increased whenever funds for the 
purchase of orchid plants become available. It is proposed to 
install the collection, now in other greenhouses, during the winter 
or spring. 
