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of the Garden, or rather of this part of the country through its 

 Garden, is a department of forestry;. From an economic point 

 of view, this is by far the most important department of botany 

 at the present time. Our need of increased forest resources is 

 already alarming to every serious political economist. When an 

 attempt is made to provide them, we find that we do not know 

 how ; that every tree must be known separately, and that until 

 this is done practical operations must fail ; and that the acquisi- 

 tion of this necessary knowledge is as slow as the growth of the 

 trees themselves. It is urgently necessary that such centers of 

 investigation should be established in numbers. Scarcely any- 

 where is there an institution that combines so many advantages 

 for a successful organization of this kind as here. Our Club has 

 this year undertaken to arouse interest in the subject by pro- 

 viding a course of ten field lessons, conducted by competent in- 

 structors, and open to all our members, without charge. 



Did time permit, I should be glad to speak on this occasion of 

 the special needs of our Club. In a general way we should get back 

 to the work for which we were originally organized — the study 

 of our local flora, at present construed as that within a ioo-mile 

 radius of this city. To do it properly provides ample work for 

 years to come. It is a work of important scientific value, yet 

 includes popular features calculated to interest every member. 

 All that is needed is a leader, and this is the point of difficulty. 

 He must be a capable botanist, and he must give practically his 

 whole time to the work. This means that he must be compen- 

 sated, and this is possible only through an endowment fund, or 

 through a very large membership list, for both of which we 

 earnestly hope. If 200 others of the 10,000 or more persons of 

 this section whose interest in plants entitles them to become 

 members of the Club would do so, there would be ample pro- 

 vision for the undertaking of this work. 



