A NEW GRAY HERBARIUM 



ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS 

 NEARING COMPI.ETION 



Will Afford More and Better Opportuni- 

 ties for the Study of Botany— The Many 

 Precautions Taken to Prevent Damage 

 by Fire— How the Building Will Look 

 When the Work Is Done— Recent Gifts 

 to the Institution jJ ylfi^*-^- 



— - L9f^ 



BY GEORGE NOBLH ♦ 



To those Intareated in the study ol bot- 

 any—either casual or Ueop and painstaking 

 —innumerable addiUoual opportunities and 

 faolIUles wUl be afforded in the oourBe o£ a 

 few months. It Is expected that by June 

 l~perhap3 sooner— the workmen Who have 

 been busily engaged in conipleltng the im- 

 provements to the Gray Herbarium, in the 

 Botanic Garden, Cambridge, ever since the 

 removal of th« old Asa Gray house across 

 •Garden street, about a year ago, will have 

 gathered up Ihclr tools and gone away. 



There will eventually stand on the spot a 

 brick bulldinB ol moderate height— the con. 

 tral portion hleher tnan the rest— of con- 

 siderable length, and practical in appear- 

 ance. The centj-al, or main portion, atlll 

 awaiting reconstruction, has been !n active 

 use since 1864, and was supi^ieinepted In 

 1010 by the Kidder wing, a completely ilre- 

 proof structure, the sU't of Nathaniel T. 

 KWder, Ha.rvard. '82, and a. member ol the 

 vl.siting committee of the Gray Herbarium. 



The le.Et-hanil wing, as one laces the 

 Herbarium, will be known as? the library 

 wing. It has been made, possible by an 

 anonymous gift of $25,(K)0. The basement 

 of the library wing will consist of store- 

 rooms for tlie collecting apparatus and .so 

 on. There, also, will be a photographii 

 dark room. 



, The ground floor -will be occupied larsie- 



from the standpoint of authentic epecl- i ^x, 

 uien.1; that la to say, specimens which have , 

 been verified by compE^rison with the "type 

 specimens." During bis litetlmti Asa Gray 

 did much of this work of verification. Dr. 

 Gray started the Herbarium privately In 

 the ■SOs. In ls«4 he presented it to Har- 

 vard College when the building now occu- 

 pying the centre of the group and greatly 

 in need of renovation was erected for its 

 housing. The growth of the colieotlon haa. 

 been steady. There has never been a lapse 

 in its continuous advance since its start 



As still one more safeguard against Are, 

 there are to be steel wastebaskets scattered 

 throughout the herbarium. The herbarium 

 eases are of steel and almost air-tight. 

 And the window-curtain rollers are of steel. 

 The walls, outside, are of brick; Inside, 

 of paiiited brick and plaster. The floors 

 are of painted cement. Thus, to the visitor 

 is presented the clean, splc and span ap- 

 pearance of I a model dairy— as taBCinating 

 a place as aJ well-found clipper ship. 



Among the gifts received by the her- 

 barium since the removal of the Aaa Gray 

 house are a copy of Hoola van Nooten'a 

 elaborately Illustrated folio publication on 

 the fruits and flowers of ,Tava. This was 

 contributed by Mrs. William G. Wold ol 

 the visiting committee. 



Another gift by which great store Is sat 

 Is a bust (the gallery of busts In the her- 

 barium Is large) of the late Alphonsa fle 

 CandoUe, a distinguished Swiss botanist of 

 Geneva. This Was presented by Caslmir da 

 Candolle, a botanist, the son oC Alphonse. 

 in recognition of the long and intimate 

 friendship between his father and ABA 

 Gray. 



Botan,v is closely interwoven with the 

 traditions of this Swiss family. For Bome 

 yesvrs there has been in the Gray Herbarium 

 a bust of Augusle Pyramls de Candolle, 

 the lather of Alphonse. Today in Switzer- 

 land, likely in time to become famous as 

 a botanist, dwells Auguste de Candolle, a 

 son of Caslmir, the recent donor of the 

 bust of Alphonse to the herbarium. 



It might be stated with aoouracy that the 

 herbarium (of which Benjamin Lincoln 



THE ENLARGED GRAY HERBARIUM 



I hv what known .i« o st.-. -l; for honks- ( Robinson. Ph. D.. Asa Gray professor of ! 



