GUIDE TO THE ECONOMIC MUSEUM OF THE 
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 
PREPARED BY 
H. H. RUSBY, M.D. 
Honorary Curator of the Economic Collections; Member of 
the Scientific Directors and of the Board of Managers; 
Dean of the College of Pharmacy of Columbia University 
INTRODUCTION 
The plan of the Economic Museum provides for the 
illustration of all useful products derived directly from 
plants and, so far as practicable, for the presentation of 
characteristic specimens of the plants themselves. 
The United States possesses no such large general collec- 
tion of useful plant products as those to be found at Kew, 
South Kensington, Berlin, Calcutta, and other Old World 
centers. There are, indeed, many collections, some of 
them fairly large, which represent special industries, such 
as materia medica. Some of our larger drug houses possess 
extensive collections of this kind, but they are maintained 
chiefly for their own working purposes and are not founded 
on broad scientific lines. Several of our schools of phar- 
2» macy, notably that of Columbia University, strive for more 
> complete collections, but these are primarily designed for 
teaching purposes. We have also a number of excellent 
collections representing forestry, notably that at the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History in New York, but relating 
chiefly to North American trees. 
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