(95) 



i. THE MUSEUM OF ECONOMIC BOTANY* 



This occupies the entire main floor, and comprises both 

 crude and refined products of plants used in the arts, the 

 sciences, and the industries, as well as illustrative photo- 

 graphs and drawings. The specimens, at present totaling 

 nearly 10,000, are classified primarily as products, in- 

 cluding foods, drugs, fibers, gums, resins, sugars, rubbers, 

 spices and flavoring-agents, dye-stuffs, tanning-materials, 

 plant-constituents, fixed- and volatile-oils, cork, starches, 

 and others as indicated by the accompanying floor plan. 

 The articles pertaining to each of these primary classes are 

 then arranged in their botanical sequence, proceeding 

 from the lower to the higher plants. 



The arrangement of the larger groups is as follows: 

 Foods and fibers occupy the west hall, the former in cases 

 on the north side, the latter on the south. The west wing 

 is mainly given over to exhibits other than foods, fibers, 

 drugs, and woods. The east hall contains the drugs, 

 while to the east wing are assigned woods and wood-pro- 

 ducts, and a collection illustrating North American den- 

 drology. Not all of the cases are as yet in place, additions 

 being installed from time to time, as the growth of the 

 Museum requires. In the following numbering, allowance 

 is made for such additions. 



Fibers. Cases 1 to 30. — In the first case of the series 

 devoted to fibers may be found cotton, now the most im- 

 portant of the vegetable hairs and fibers. It is derived 

 from the fruit of the cotton plant (Gossypium), being the 

 hairs that cover the surface of the seeds. The fruits from 

 several different kinds of cotton-plants may be seen with 

 the cotton bursting from the capsule, while some of the 

 many different products are also shown. 



The fiber of other plants, derived from leaves, stem, bark, 

 roots, and other organs, is of great economic importance 

 and is used, either in practically its natural condition, as 



* For more detailed information, see our Guide to the Economic Museum. 



