by the Scientific Directors, and for years they have 

 wished that the Garden might be able to carry on 

 collecting in localities of special interest and to support 

 subsequent study and publication. Today most promis- 

 ing grounds for investigation are known in the West 

 Indies and in Alaska. 



Although the purposes of the Economic Museum are 

 largely educational, much research work is required in 



„ . _ „ . . the classification and arrangement 



Economic Collections 1 . 



of its materials. The botanical 

 sources of many economic plant products are as yet 

 unknown or poorly known. In many cases such knowl- 

 edge is confused, owing to mixed origin or to commercial 

 substitution or adulteration. The methods necessary 

 to be employed in the identification and differentiation 

 of these fragmentary materials are quite different from 

 those involved in the study of the complete specimens 

 of the Garden or herbarium. Not only minute micro- 

 scopical examinations, but chemical tests, must often 

 be employed, and long and patient investigations are 

 often necessary in the determination of differential 

 characteristics. Besides these questions of identity, 

 there are others, often of greater moment, which relate 

 to the determination of relative values, and which call 

 for quantitative methods of estimate. In the case of 

 drugs these requirements have resulted in the develop- 

 ment of the distinct branch of science known as pharma- 

 cognosy, offering broad fields of research. The require- 

 ments are no less urgent in the department of foods, 

 fibres and other products represented in our Museum. 

 While the Garden's growth up to the present has 

 provided more or less adequately for research in sys- 

 „ , „ tematic botany, paleobotany and 



Experimental Botany . . . 



economic botany, research in other 



fields has had to remain relatively undeveloped. Yet 



[7] 



