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about a course, "The selection and use of plant materials in public
and private landscaping, designed for civil engineers"?

I regret that I did not attend the Garden's symposium held last
fall. Sponsorship of such worthwhile projects certainly ought to add
to the prestige of the institution. It seems to me that there is need
for a getting together of the heads and many of the workers in our
larger herbaria for discussion of problems common to all of them, the
botanical gardens too. You referred to the fact that at the September
meetings in East Lansing there was some such meeting. There was, but
it was on a very limited scale. I wonder if some institution would
find it personally advantageous to sponsor such a convention.

The herbarium was of course one of the Garden's facilities that
had an especial appeal to me. I had little contact with it on this
visit, but my impression was that it is definitely on the mend,
thanks mostly to you. The improvements are long overdue. The space
consideration is indeed a limiting factor. My little suggestion for
putting certain cases on wheels so they could be moved aside in order
to get operating space would have limited benefits. The Garden's
program to dispose of collections not in active use seems the only
way out, especially if it will strengthen the use of the remaining
collections. I hope that whoever acquires them will stimulate work
in those fields so that the over-all result will be an increase in
scientific research. I hope I may some day again have the pleasure
of working on the M.B.G. herbarium collections in connection with my
planned research. In this regard let me mention the great advantage
that the Garden has over institutions without garden facilities. Where
can those doing taxonomic research at the U.S. National Herbarium grow
material to supplement their herbarium studies? Are these opportunities
being exploited at the Garden to their full potentialities? I trust
that they are.

The library and the herbarium are inseparable. As with the
herbarium I was much impressed with the recent improvements you have
carried out; they were evident everywhere, no less in the minds of
those intimately associated with the library--and not always on the
approving side. But that only emphasized their value in my mind.
However, the library, like the auditorium, seemed to me to be in
urgent need of more adequate quarters. The atmosphere was dingy.
Redecorating and modern lighting would do wonders. I suppose reading
room space has been sacrificed over the ages to the increased collec-
tions and the need for working space for students. I wonder if there
was ever any appreciable use made of the library by the botanical
public, directly by personal use or through requests for information.
It seems, under the present circumstances, that outsiders could hardly
benefit greatly from the library, and yet that might be one of the ways
to build up the reputation of the institution as a developmental force
in the city, leading indirectly to new financial support. Do the