REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 47 



the fauna o! the Coos Bay Miocene Empire beds of Oregon is now in 

 progress. 



The di\nsion of paleobotany, which contains the collections of 

 both the Museum and the Survey, has remained, as heretofore, 

 under the supervision of the paleobotanists of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey. Prof. L. F. Ward completed his monograph on "The 

 status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States, Part II," which 

 will soon be issued by the Survey. Mr. David T\Tiite made exten- 

 sive use of the Lacoe collection in the preparation of a report on the 

 stratigraphic succession of the Pottsville floras in the basins of the 

 Appalachian trough, while Dr. F. H. Knowlton was occupied with 

 the flora of the Laramie group and with material from Alaska. 

 The type-specimens of the genus Myrica were the subject of study 

 by Mr. E. W. Berry, secretary of the Torrey Botanical Club, of Pas- 

 saic, New Jersey, and the type specimens of the genera Eucalyptus 

 and Casuarina by Mr. Henry Dean, president of the Linngean Society 

 of New South Wales. 



EXPLORATIONS. ■ 



Members of the Museum staff have little opportunity to engage in 

 field work, owing to the very limited funds available for the purpose, 

 and all expeditions undertaken by them are naturally restricted to 

 obtaming material not already represented in the collections. The 

 principal sources of additions to the collections are the Government 

 surveys and explorations, such as arc conducted by the Geological 

 Survey, the Bureau of Fisheries, several bureaus of the Department 

 of Agriculture, and the Bureau of American Ethnology, all of which, 

 under the law, are required to deposit their collections ui the Museum 

 as soon as they have been studied, though these transfers are often 

 made without awaiting this result. 



Individuals collecting in a private capacity are sometimes among 

 the most liberal contributors, and two such cases are especially note- 

 worthy in the history of the past year. Dr. W. L. Abbott, whose 

 generosity has so often been mentioned in these reports, continued 

 his work in the Far East and has sent home large series of specimens 

 in anthropology, mammalogy, and ornithology. Twenty-eight 

 cases of ethnological objects, comprising his last shipment for the 

 year, illustrate investigations on Sumatra, the Mergui group, and 

 the islands of Nias and Engano. His studies in this subject have 

 been extensive and exhaustive and the results naturally most instruc- 

 tive and important. The field covered by his labors in collecting 

 mammals and bii-ds included mainly the Malay Peninsula and adja- 

 cent islands and the islands of Banka, Billiton, and Karimata, 

 between Sumatra and Borneo, from w-hich he has sent many him- 

 dreds of interesting specimens. 



