EEPOET OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1915. 55 



While not personally conducting any explorations during the past 

 year, he continued to maintain Mr. H. C. Eaven in the field, with most 

 important results. After finishing his work in Borneo in July, 1914, 

 Mr. Eaven crossed to Celebes, where he conducted a very successful 

 campaign of collecting until his return to this country near the close 

 of the year. The material from Celebes can not fail to be of great 

 value, as this interesting island has been very j)oorly represented in 

 the Museum. 



The collections from the expedition of Mr. John B. Henderson to 

 northwestern Cuba, alluded to in the last report, did not reach the 

 Museum until within the past year. They contain not less than 

 10,000 specimens, mostly marine invertebrates, but with numerous 

 terrestrial examples. Mr. Henderson again visited Cuba during last 

 year in search of mollusks, in which connection the Museum also 

 profited, as well as by his dredging operations in southern Florida 

 conducted from his yacht Eolis. 



Various explorations under the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton have, through the generous attitude of that establishment, re- 

 sulted in substantial additions to the Museum collections. Fore- 

 most among these was the expedition of Dr. J. N. Eose, associate in 

 botany, during the summer and autumn of 1914, to the west coast 

 of South America to secure material for his monograph of the 

 Cactaceae. His work was mainly confined to Peru and Chile, and 

 besides a very large number o-f cacti, he brought back many specimens 

 of other groups, aggregating in all some 3,000 specimens, which were 

 placed in the National Museum on permanent deposit. With the aid 

 of grants from the Carnegie Institution, Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, 

 custodian of madreporarian corals, has for some time past under- 

 taken a series of investigations chiefly in the West Indian region rela- 

 tive to the growth of corals, their role in reef building and related 

 problems. In pursuance of this work he has made trips to Florida, 

 the Bahamas and other West Indian localities, and has received the 

 assistance of Dr. A. G. Mayer and his staff of collectors at the Tortu- 

 gas Marine Biological Laboratory. Extensive collections have 

 reached the Museum from this source. Dr. Mayer's own expedition 

 to the Murray Islands in the gulf between North Australia and New 

 Guinea, not far from the eastern entrance to Torres Strait, a.dded 

 about 300 specimens representing some 75 species. In connection 

 with the West Indian researches it was desired to obtain corals and 

 other marine invertebrates from St. Thomas, which had not been 

 visited, and Mr. C. E. Shoemaker, of the Museum staff, was detailed 

 to this duty, at the expense of the Museum, but his departure was de- 

 layed until the middle of June. The colonies of Cerion mollusks 

 which Dr. Bartsch, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution, 

 had transplanted from the Bahamas to certain Florida Keys for the 



