(126) 



soon after the commencement of the last century. After 

 half a century of natural growth several large herbaria were 

 incorporated in it and large sets of special collections were 

 added to it. The Garden herbarium was begun with the 

 inception of the Garden. It has grown rapidly and now 

 far excels the Columbia herbarium in the number of speci- 

 mens. The rapid growth of the Garden herbarium and its 

 importance is due to the fact that it is built up of approxi- 

 mately thirty different herbaria which represent plants of 

 all groups from all parts of the globe. To this as a basis 

 have been added miscellaneous collections and the first 

 sets of the plants secured by members of the Garden staff 

 while exploring in different parts of the New World and 

 the Old. 



The great majority of specimens are mounted on her- 

 barium sheets, but many thousand specimens, such as 

 bulky fungi, fruits, seeds, and other parts of plants not 

 suitable for placing flat on herbarium sheets are contained 

 in cardboard boxes of multiple sizes. 



The herbarium now comprises more than one and 

 one-half million specimens. All groups of the flowerless 

 plants and flowering plants are copiously represented. 



THE LABORATORIES 



Laboratories and working rooms for research are pro- 

 vided on the upper floor of the museum building, and prop- 

 erly qualified students of botany are permitted to make use 

 of this equipment, under the direction of some member of 

 the staff of the Garden. The equipment is designed to meet 

 the needs of a very broad field of investigation, including 

 plant chemistry, pathology, physiology and morphology. 

 An experimental garden and greenhouse at the nurseries 

 are used in connection with the laboratories. A valuable 

 series of old microscopes, illustrating the history and de- 

 velopment of that instrument, was presented by the late 

 Mr. Charles F. Cox. 



