Brackenridge reported, 



The number of seeds brought and sent home by the 

 Expedition amounted to 684 species most of which have 

 been sent all over the country. Several cases of live 

 plants were also sent home, of the existence of which 

 there are no traces. The live plants brought home by 

 the squadron amounted to 254 species, and these now 

 form part of the greenhouse collection. 23 



Given the increasing number of plants the Institute was 

 receiving in exchange for the Wilkes Expedition seeds it was 

 distributing, Brackenridge felt that within a year the 

 botanical collection would outgrow the new greenhouse. 24 

 Brackenridge' s projections proved to be correct; subse- 

 quently, two additions to the Patent Office greenhouse were 

 constructed under the direction of the Joint Committee on 

 the Library, and a small growing area was made available. 25 



The Wilkes collection was placed under the "direction 

 and control of the Joint Committee on the Library" on March 

 3, 1843, the rationale being that the Committee had, some 

 months earlier, been given the responsibility of supervising 

 the publication of the results of the Expedition. 26 At the same 

 time, the Committee officially "appointed and directed" 

 Brackenridge to take "charge of and preserve" the 

 Expedition's botanical and horticultural specimens. 27 



At the outset, all of the Expedition's collections were 

 placed in the custody of the National Institute. Then in July 

 1843, the Joint Committee on the Library appointed the 

 Commissioner of Patents as custodian of all Government 



23 Goode, the Genesis of the National Museum, pp. 353-354. See also 

 Bartlett, Reports of the Wilkes Expedition, p. 678; and Rathbun, The 

 Columbian Institute, p. 51. 



24 Goode, the Genesis of the National Museum, p. 354. 



25 5 Stat. 642, 691. A comprehensive explanation of the expansions to 

 the Patent Office greenhouse is found in Rathbun, The Columbian 

 Institute, pp. 51-52. 



26 5 Stat. 642; and U.S. Congress, Senate, Estimates of Expenditures 

 on the Botanic Garden, 1850-1907, Senate Document No. 494, 60th 

 Cong., 1st Sess., Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1908, p. 4. 



27 U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on the Library, The Botanic Garden 

 and Its Relation to the Joint Committee on the Library, July 1, 1912, 

 Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1912, pp. 3-4. 



25 



