NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS 2l7 



of spices; 1 of licorice; 1 of soap-making, insect powders and 

 miscellaneous vegetable products. 



The specimens throughout the economic museum are supple- 

 mented by plates, photographs and drawings. 



Systematic botany. A general synoptic collection consisting of 

 72 cases occupies the second floor of the building. Typical speci- 

 mens of plants occupy the backs of the cases while on the 

 shelves are arranged photographs, drawings, flowers, fruits, 

 woods, fossils, etc. The present installation is as follows: one 

 case (the first) contains the myxomycetes or slime molds. The 

 seven cases following this are devoted to the algae or seaweeds. 

 The succeeding seven cases contain the various groups of the 

 fungi. Three cases are devoted to the lichens, two to the hepa- 

 tics, four to the mosses, three to the pteridophytes, three to the 

 gymnosperms, six to the monocotyledons and 36 to the dicoty- 

 ledons. 



There is also a collection mounted on swinging frames of every 

 species of plant known to grow naturall}^ within 100 miles of 

 New York. A unique exhibit, both suggested and presented by 

 William E. Dodge, consists of 24 microscopes of special design 

 showing a series of slides of cryptogamic plants. 



The library and herbarium occupy the third floor. There are 

 13,000 volumes now in the library, about one half of which con- 

 stitute the botanic library of Columbia university. 



The herbarium contains 1,100,000 specimens, 700,000 in the 

 Columbia herbarium and 400,000 in the garden herbarium. The 

 latter collection is rapidly gaining in value and importance. 



1 Garden herbarium. The specimens composing it have been 

 derived from collections made in all parts of the world during 

 the past few years (specially since the foundation of the gar- 

 den) in addition to miscellaneous specimens and many rare sets 

 of plants of earlier collections fortunately acquired through the 

 accessions of the following collections: 



The J. B. Ellis herbarium, of fungi. 



The John J. Crooke herbarium, mainly North American. 



