KEPORT OF IsTATIOlSrAL MUSEUM, 1915. 51 



the series. The purpose of this work is to insure greater safety to 

 the choicer parts of the collections, the parts which could not be 

 replaced, and which in the general herbarium might be subjected to 

 rougher usage. By this arrangement also the types are made more 

 accessible. The important task of putting the cryptogamic collec- 

 tions into proper shape was, unfortunately, interrupted by the resig- 

 nation of the aid employed for that purpose. A beginning, however, 

 had been made by preparing complete generic indices of the algae, 

 fmigi, lichens, hepaticae and musci, based upon the " Natiirlichen 

 Pflanzenf amilien " of Engler and Prantl, and the algae were all 

 mounted and rearranged. Similar work on the lichens had also been 

 started. 



Mr. Frederick V. Coville, curator of the division, continued his 

 studies of the genus Vaccimum begun a number of years ago. The 

 X)reparation of a new local flora covering the flowering plants and 

 vascular cryptogams of Washington and vicinity, proposed by 

 Prof. A. S. Hitchcock and Mr. William E. Maxon, will have the 

 benefit of his general supervision. Dr. J. N. Eose, associate in 

 botany, has still in progress his investigation of the Cactaceae under 

 the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. At the 

 close of the year he was conducting field investigations in southern 

 Brazil and Argentina. 



Mr. William E. Maxon, associate curator, was the author of several 

 short papers describing new species or containing revisions of small 

 groups of species, and continued general work upon the ferns of 

 North America, especially of the genus Pohjpodmm. Mr. Paul C. 

 Standley, assistant curator, prepared a number of brief papers, in- 

 cluding one relating to the families Chenopodiaceae and Amarantha- 

 ceae for the North American Flora. The Flora of New Mexico, the 

 joint work of Prof. E. O. Wooton and Mr. Standley, was published 

 as volume 19 of the Contributions from the National Herbarium. 

 Mr. G. P. Van Eseltine, aid, previous to his resignation in May, had 

 undertaken a revision of the North American species of Selaginella 

 of the S. rupestris gToup, on which a preliminary paper was sub- 

 mitted for publication. Mr. E. S. Steele, editorial assistant, devoted 

 as much time as could be spared from his regular duties to the study 

 of the genus Laciniaria. Dr. E. L. Greene, associate in botany, made 

 some progress with the second part of Botanical Landmarks, while 

 Capt. John Donnell Smith, also associate in botany, continued his 

 studies of Central American plants. 



The herbarium was consulted by many members of the scientific 

 staff of the Department of Agriculture. Among other professional 

 botanists who conducted researches in the division were Prof. J. N. F. 

 Wille, director of the Botanical Garden and Museum at Christiania, 

 Norway; Prof. W. A. Setchell, of the University of California; 



