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Report on Botany. 



ago, its friends dared to anticipate. Among the important 

 ones we merely mention the botanical contributions of 

 of Prof. Asa Gray, in the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, and the address of the same before the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science; the 

 former containing descriptions of several new species from 

 the western part of the country, and some valuable notes 

 on synomymy; the latter, some exceedingly interesting 

 thoughts on the redwoods of California and on plant dis- 

 tribution. 



Let us pass now from the consideration of publications 

 to that of collections. We express no new thought when 

 we say that an herbarium of specimens properly selected, 

 well prepared, systematically arranged and authentically 

 labeled is in some respects more valuable than an extensive 

 botanical library. For the study of structural characters, 

 for the ready identification of unknown or unrecognized 

 species, as a repository of typical specimens, its place can 

 not easily be supplied by books. Even in the field the 

 facilities for comparison, for grouping and systematizing 

 are scarcely equal to those afforded by an herbarium in 

 which plants of different climes and remote localities are 

 brought together before the eyes. The student's opportu- 

 nity and the plant's occurrence are not always coincident, 

 but the contents of an herbarium may always be accessi- 

 ble. Especially are such collections desirable in the more 

 advanced institutions of learning where they may be of 

 much aid in the illustration of lectures and in the enforc- 

 ing of instruction. Our colleges are not indifferent in this 

 matter. From time to time we hear of the purchase by 

 or of the donation to, one or another of these institutions 

 of some large and valuable collection of plants. We have 

 been informed that recently a magnificent herbarium of 

 sixty-three thousand species has been purchased for the 

 Torrey Botanical club, but it is expected that it will be 



