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relieved of a great deal of minor detail work, which at present 
devolves upon him. In some strange way the daily press re- 
ported this as a resignation by Dr. Rusby of the dean's office, and 
this report has been widely copied in other periodicals. It is 
here worthy of note, that after several years' effort on the part 
of the authorities of the College of Pharmacy, they have at 
last succeeded in establishing, in addition to the two year course, 
designed to prepare students for the work of the retail pharmacy, 
an advanced course, consisting of four years' work, for which 
the degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy will be conferred 
by Columbia University. Two years of additional work will lead 
to the degree of Doctor of Pharmacy, which places the degree 
on the same professional footing as that of M.D. This arrange- 
ment has been approved by the Education Department of the 
State of New York, and will hereafter constitute the state 
requirements for these degrees. 
William Robertson Smith, since 1854 superintendent of the 
National Botanic Garden at Washington, D. C., died on July 
7th. He was born at Athelstone Falls, Scotland, March 21, 1828, 
and came to this country from the Royal Botanic Gardens at 
Kew, in 1853. Ever since he has been prominently identified 
with the National Botanic Garden, which holds a unique position 
among botanic gardens in this country. Mr. Smith possessed 
what is probably the finest collection of Burnsiana extant. 
Prof. F. E. Lloyd until recently professor of botany at the 
Alabama Polytechnic Institute has been appointed professor of 
botany at McGill University, Montreal. Prof. Lloyd, who is 
now carrying on research work at the Carnegie Institution at 
Tucson, will begin work at his new post about September rst. 
An interesting acquisition to American botanical libraries is 
the recent purchase by the New York Botanical Garden of a 
copy of “Jacquin’s Selectarum Stirpium Historia Iconibus 
Pictis." This, said to be the most valuable single volume in 
modern botanical literature, contains 264 colored plates, and 
descriptions of many tropical american plants. Only 12 or at 
least not more than 18 copies of this work were ever printed. 
