8 DircRor' s Annual Report. 



The California Academy of vSciences has done valuable work 

 in increasing the knowledge of the natural history of the Pacific 

 region, more particularly in the ornithological and conchological 

 sedlions, in the latter branch having been assisted by the contribu- 

 tions of Messrs. Pease and Garrett in earlier days. I might men- 

 tion here that the Garrett colle(5lion of shells is in the cases of the 

 Bishop Museum. The bird collecl;ion was being well developed by 

 the Curator, and the series of Pacific coast marine birds was very 

 fine. The ethnological department had been much neglected 

 through the want of individual attention, but the recent acquisition 

 of an ethnologist from New^ York will no doubt result in the col- 

 leClion being placed in satisfacflory order. Much time in future is 

 to be given to the study of aboriginal life in California. The Poly- 

 nesian collecftion was poor, which is very strange when the trade 

 from San Francisco to the Pacific islands is taken into consideration. 



Opportunity was taken to visit the Stanford University at Palo 

 Alto, Cal., whence the benefit of Dr. Jordan's work in training 

 young scientists is already widely felt. The study of fish is closely 

 followed in this university, the laboratory of which was found to be 

 as complete as modqrn improvements could make it. The University 

 Museum has been carefully arranged and would rank mainly as a 

 family museum, having no doubt been established to be of most 

 interest to the Stanford students. 



In St. lyouis the beautiful and arti.stically arranged gardens of 

 the Missouri Botanical Park were seen. This park originally be- 

 longed to a philanthropic botanist who bequeathed it to the state to 

 be used as a public garden. That the responsibility of caring for 

 the place was appreciated, w^as shown by the splendid order kept 

 and the very complete naming of the plants. Adjoining the gar- 

 dens was a large enclosure in which grew the larger American 

 trees labelled with botanical and general names. 



On arriving in Washington the Smithsonian Institution was 

 visited. It was observed that one vast colle(5lion was preserved in 

 the two buildings, the vSmithsonian Institution containing the greater 

 portion of the natural history collection, represented by the inverte- 

 TDrates, birds and fish ( casts ) ; the botanical portion was not seen. In 

 this building was also a room given up to the stone and copper im- 

 plements of the American aborigines. The National Museum was 

 devoted to ethnology and anthropology, and the balance of the nat- 

 ural history collecftion comprising geological specimens, mammals 



