in the rate of interest on invested property, the income will steadily decrease unless an additional sum is obtained. Two hundred thousand dollars more are needed to place the institution in such a condition that its standing among the great observatories of the world shall be secure. The buildings at Cambridge are old and to provide new ones, suited to modern requirements, will cost at least $100,000. The present buildings at Cambridge are valued at $52,000 and at Arequipa $12,000. The instruments at Cambridge are valued at $20,000 and at Arequipa $50,000. The great need of the Observatory in the instrumental way is a great telescope for the southern hemisphere, the cost of which for construction and maintenance, would be about $200,000. Altogether, half a million dollars are desired to make the Observatory worthy of the great future which opens before it. More money is also needed for publication. Already there have been issued by the Observatory about forty quarto volumes of the 'Annals,' embracing researches in many lines of astronomy and meteorology. An enormous amount of material, however, is still awaiting publication, sufficient to make about twenty-eight additional volumes. Some of these will be issued soon, and all as rapidly as the nature of the Mork and the funds available for publication will permit.
During the last year several lines of investigation have been pursued. Photometric and photographic determinations were made of the brightness of a great number of stars, including several hundred variables. The reduction of the observations of the zones made in former years with the meridian circle has been carried forward. As usual, the whole sky was photographed several times on a small scale. These photographic charts have proved of the greatest value in tracing the past history of new stars, variable stars and special new objects, such as the little planet Eros. Also a very large number of photographs have been made of special objects with instruments of greater power. Progress was made in the study of the spectra of the stars and several objects of special interest were discovered, including one nova. Intimately associated with the institution is the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory—where during the year some striking experiments were carried on in kiteflying. A meteorgraph, suspended under the kite, gave records at heights as great as 15,800 feet above sea level. In Peru, the line of meteorological stations extending from the Pacific across the Andes, with one on the summit of El Misti, at an elevation of 19,200 feet, has been maintained. The Harvard Observatory acts as the distributing center in this country for all telegraphic announcements of astronomical discoveries. During the year twenty messages were sent out to American and European astronomers.
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN.
The advance sheets of the 'Bulletin' of the New York Botanical Garden for 1901, and the pages of the 'Journal,' show most gratifying progress in that institution since the preparation of the article dealing with it published in this magazine in June of last year. About seven thousand species of plants are now successfully cultivated in the open air and under glass. The large conservatories, which were completed in 1900, have been filled by plants received as gifts and as exchanges. Many donations of great value have been received from various persons, and notable exchanges have been made with the Buffalo Botanic Garden and Fairmount Park. A collection of succulents, numbering about five hundred species, purchased by Dr. N. L. Britton during his recent European tour in attendance at the International Congress of Botanists in Paris, has been recently received and is now installed in the conservatories. Mr. Samuel Henshaw resigned from the position of head gardener on January 1, 1901, and was sent on a collecting tour in the West Indies. He has recently re-
