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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1339

which reference has just been made. The complete statement of the auditors was on the table for examination. 

The Chairman has continued regular contact with the Secretary throughout the year, and has held one meeting of the Executive Committee on November 15, 1951. It will be recalled that a Special Meeting of the Board of Regents was convened on May 3 at which other business was presented. 

At the meeting of November 15 the Secretary brought to attention income from the volumes on North American Wild Flowers, prepared from paintings by Mrs. Charles D. Walcott, and published by the Smithsonian Institution through funds that Mrs. Walcott contributed. Sales from the stock of these volumes, which were left to the Institution by bequest of Mrs. Walcott, had accumulated to the amount of $63,972.32. These sales proceed under an arrangement that the Secretary has made with a competent dealer in books on natural history, and it is expected that eventually an additional $70,000 may be realized. 

The Secretary proposed that $60,000 of the accumulated funds from this source be added to the principal of the existing Charles D. and Mary Vaux Walcott Fund, with the stipulation that the income from this addition of $60,000 be used for botanical publication, a proviso that would put into effect certain suggestions that Mrs. Walcott had made during her lifetime. At the present time the National Museum has an active Department of Botany which carries on important researches. At present there are no funds under the Institution devoted particularly to assistance in this work, so that the amount to be derived from such a fund would be of definite aid. After due discussion the Executive Committee agreed that this was appropriate and instructed the Secretary to put the proposal into effect. This has now been done. 

The Institution for a considerable number of years has employed Scudder, Stevens

A.W.