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Kew, England, and about 80 specimens of miscellaneous medicinal substances contributed by Messrs. W. H. Schieffelin & Co., of New York, to fill vacancies in existing series. Both accessions have been installed and labelled.

The most important routine work has been the preparation of descriptive labels, which work has been systematically and persistently carried on during the year.  Each label, in its preparation, involves the study of the specimen, the comparison of its physical characters with those laid down by the authorities, the determination of its sources, geographical botanical, etc. and of its supposed medicinal properties, and uses.  The effort is made to select the most important and interesting facts that can be presented in the few lines appropriate to a Museum label, avoiding on the one hand that meagerness which gives the inquiring visitor nothing but a name, and, on the other, that fullness of detail which discourages by its length, or confuses by its technical precision.