the earth's surface have yet been combed exhaustively 

 for botanical material. To yield its full value explora- 

 tion should furnish information on the kind of habitat 

 in which the different plants occur. 



Just as the collection of plants may be said to be the 

 traditional object of botanical gardens, so systematic 

 botany is the traditional, time-honored form of their 

 scientific research. From the* first, systematic botany 

 has been the chief feature of investigation that has 

 been carried on by the New York Garden, and in this 

 field the institution has acquired a leading position in 

 this country. One of the most ambitious and most 

 notable of its enterprises of this kind is that of making 

 and publishing a very complete descriptive treatment of 

 all species of plants occurring within the boundaries 

 of North America, including Central America and the 

 West Indies. This has required much exploration and 

 much study of other collections than those of the New 

 York Garden. The published work, entitled "North 

 American Flora," was inaugurated in 1905. Fifty- 

 three parts have now appeared under the authorship 

 of members of the Garden staff and others. Its comple- 

 tion will be a work of many future years. A highly 

 important investigation recently begun is the study of 

 the flora and plant products of northern South America, 

 in cooperation with the United States National Museum 

 and with the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. 

 A member of the staff of the New York Garden, with 

 the staff-members of the cooperating institutions, is 

 making progress in the reduction of the vast collections 

 from the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, 

 and has effected important alliances with the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris. Research in systematic botany may be either 

 one of two kinds: either a study of all the plants of a 



[5] 



