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the lack of uniformity in salary and other policies, the
antagonisms and disagreements between them and a resulting
duplication of research and of herbarium and library
facilities (par. 62, R. 82). The Report made sweeping proposals for the reorganization of botany at Harvard (par.
63, R. 82).
First, the Report suggested the establishment of two
so-called Institutes, for administrative and budgetary purposes, each under its own Chairman (par. 64, R. 82). One of the Institutes, denominated the "Institute of Research in General Plant Morphology", was to include the institutions and fields of research dependent upon accumulations of preserved material, such as taxonomy, phytogeography (the study of fossil plants), comparative anatomy, and the descriptive aspects of economic botany. The specific institutions or collections recommended to be included in the Institute for Research in General Plant Morphology were the Gray Herbarium, the Farlow Library and Herbarium, the herbaria, library and collections of the Botanical Museum, and that part of the Arnold Arboretum consisting of its library and herbarium, which the Report proposed be renamed "The Sargent Library and Herbarium" (ibid.).
The other Institute recommended to be established in the
Report, denominated the "Institute for Research in Experimental and Applied Botany", was to include the institutions and fields of research concerned with plant genetics (plant heredity), plant physiology (the functions of living plants), horticulture, silviculture, and experimental aspects of economic botany. This Institute was to include the Atkins Institution, the Botanic Garden, the Harvard Forest, the Bussey Institution, the Cabot Foundation, and the grounds and living collections of the Arnold Arboretum and, until disposed of (as the Report recommended), the Case estates in Weston which consisted of more than 150 acres of land given for the purposes of the Arnold Arboretum (par. 64, R. 82-83).
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Second, the Bailey Report recommended that all botanists of professorial rank should receive salaries equivalent to those paid in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the University, which included the Biology Department, and proposed an arrangement, thereafter commonly referred to as the so-called "quid pro quo", under which one-half of each salary was to be paid by the University and the remaining one-half by one or more of the botanical institutions through the Institutes (par. 66, R. 83).
Third, the Report, after taking the position that the maintenance of five separate and overlapping herbaria and libraries in the same general field was wasteful and inefficient, recommended that all five libraries and herbaria, including the library and herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum, should be combined and housed in a central building in the closest possible proximity to the biological laboratories in Cambridge (par. 67, R. 83).
Fourth, the Report in an appendix analyzed in detail the extent of apparent duplication in the various botanical libraries and recommended that duplicates be disposed of (par. 70, R. 84).
The Bailey Report contained little discussion of the Indenture of 1872 and did not state whether the Indenture established a trust (par. 74, R. 85). In the course of the Report, in considering the possibility of an abandonment of living collections of the Arboretum, the Report characterized the Arboretum as the "goose that lays the golden eggs" and recommended against abandonment of the living collections for these and other reasons (ibid.).
The aim of the Bailey plan was to effect a reorganization of Harvard's botanical resources through a formulation of broad plans for the promotion of the science of botany by eliminating waste and inefficiency in the various botanical institutions (par. 71, R. 84). In recommending the combination of libraries and herbaria, including the library and