156 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. X 



case containing representatives of the banana family. To the exhibit 

 of foreign nuts forming a part of the exhibit of food plants in Hall 

 25 there was added a reproduction of a California-grown almond 

 branch in fruit. Other additions to Hall 25 include a case of beverage 

 plants such as coffee, mate, cassine tea, kola, guarana, and cacao, 

 and a case devoted to fermented and distilled beverages. 



A variety of material was added also to the exhibits in Charles 

 F. Millspaugh Hall (Hall 26, North American woods). Hall 27 

 (foreign woods) and Hall 28 (plant raw materials and products). 



Most important new exhibit of the Department of Geology is 

 a collection of culture pearls grown in Japan and presented to the 

 Museum by Mr. Kokichi Mikimoto, of Tokyo, to whose years of 

 experiment and study the commercial production of culture pearls 

 is due. This collection, placed on exhibition in H. N. Higinbotham 

 Hall (Hall 31), includes a group of five culture pearls illustrating 

 range of color and luster; another group of six culture pearls with 

 six natural Oriental pearls for comparison; a pearl oyster with one 

 shell removed to show the mantle in which the pearl grows; a large 

 shell which has a dark mother-of-pearl margin and a light center, 

 with a black pearl on the dark portion and a white one on the light, 

 showing the influence of the shell color on the color of the pearls; 

 and two pearls cut in section, one a natural pearl and one of the 

 culture variety, placed under a magnifying glass to show the nuclei 

 and structure of each kind. 



To the meteorite collection in Hall 34, fifteen new specimens 

 representing eleven falls were added. The collection, which is the 

 largest in the world as regards the number of falls represented, now 

 contains specimens of more than two-thirds of all known meteorites, 

 or 727 of the approximately 1,050 of which there is a record. 



Fossil skulls of a sabertooth tiger, an Andean horse, and a giant 

 species of turtle were added to the paleontological exhibits in Ernest 

 R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). 



Reinstallation to better advantage of the mineral collection in 

 Hall 34 was completed, and great progress was made on exhibits 

 requiring reinstallation in other halls of the Department of Geology. 



As in the previous year, for reasons of economy, there were no 

 budget appropriations for expeditions or field work, but a number 

 of privately financed expeditions, organized on behalf of the Museum, 

 were productive of great benefits to the institution. 



The Straus West African Expedition of Field Museum, sponsored 

 by Mrs. Sarah S. Straus, of New York, widow of the late Oscar 



