REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 190{>. 45 



important were 235 Philippine and 889 Mexican plants. The Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington jDresented 97 jDlants; Mr, F. E. 

 Lloyd, 194 Mexican plants; and Mr. E. I. Applegate, 360 specimens 

 from Oregon. Capt. John Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, who in 1905 

 presented about 100,000 mounted specimens to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution with the understanding that certain parts of the collection 

 might be retained in Baltimore for a short time, transferred about 

 7,000 sheets of ferns in March of the past year. 



Specimens to the number of 15,513 were stamped and incorporated 

 in the permanent herbarium, making the total number so disposed of 

 since the transfer of the herbarium to the Museum in 1894, 347,874. 

 The number of specimens mounted was 15,580. Forty unit herbarium 

 cases, comprising 960 pigeonholes, w^ere added to the stack, increas- 

 ing the number of pigeonholes in use to 11,818. Many of the cases 

 were fireproofed with a covering of sheet metal, which required the 

 removal of the contents of several cases at a time, and engaged much 

 of the attention of the assistants for a long period. The work was 

 not completed at the close of the j^ear. 



The increase of routine work left little time for scientific investi- 

 gations on the part of the associate and assistant curators. Doctor 

 Rose continued studies on the cacti and other Mexican and Central 

 American plants and Mr. Maxon on ferns. The latter also edited the 

 manuscript on ferns left by the late Dr. L. iSI. Underwood. The 

 director of the New York Botanical Garden and the curator of its 

 herbarium spent some time at the National Museum. Mr. W. W. 

 Eggleston, of Eutland, Vermont, made studies of the genus Cratcegus^ 

 and Miss Alice Eastwood, of San Francisco, of California plants. 

 Dr. J. ]\I. Coulter, head professor of botany. University of Chicago, 

 remained here several months at work on a manual of botany and 

 also prepared in collaboration with Doctor Rose a supplement to their 

 monograph of North American Umbelliferse. The large series of 

 specimens of violets was examined by Dr. Ezra Brainerd, ex-presi- 

 dent of Middlebury College, Vermont. The botanists of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture made extensive use of the herbarium during the 

 year. 



About 2,400 specimens of plants, exclusive of those borrowed by 

 botanists in the government service, were lent to twenty botanists and 

 botanical institutions. The largest lots sent out were as follows: 

 1,153 ferns of the genus Dryopteris to Mr. C. C. Christensen, of 

 Copenhagen, Denmark; 131 specimens of the genus Plantago to 

 Prof. E. L. Morris, of Washington, District of Columbia ; 111 speci- 

 mens of Vittaria and 57 ferns to Mr. R. C. Benedict, of New York; 

 117 ferns of the genus Asplenimn to Miss W. J. Robinson; 317 mis- 

 cellaneous plants to Mr. W. W. Eggleston, of Rutland, Vermont; 273 

 specimens of the genus' Usnea to Mr. R. H. Howe, jr., of Concord, 

 Massachusetts. 



