24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



has led Prof. J. H. Gore to make a thorougli examination into the nature 

 and properties of this fungus. By means of circulars of inquiry, widely 

 distributed by the Institution, a considerable amount of material and 

 information has been collected. This substance is found growing in 

 irregular masses of mycelium around the roots of trees — especially the 

 conifers — and is met with in certain districts as far north as New Jersey 

 and Pennsylvania, and even in parts of New York, and as far south as 

 Florida and Texas. Professor Gore has shown that the somewhat 

 varied accounts given by earlier writers result from a loose application 

 of the term tucltahoe to different substances and tubers, and that the 

 genuine article is destitute of starch, and, though abundant in pectinous 

 matter, possesses in itself but a small nutritive value. The essay is 

 comprised in a pamphlet of 13 pages. 



Since the publication by this Institution in 1862 of a work on the 

 'Classification of the Coleoptera of North America," by Dr. John L. 

 Le Conte, and in 1873 of a second part to the same, not only has the 

 collection of specimens been largely increased by the industry of entomol- 

 ogists, but many new genera previously unknown have been added to 

 this large and important order or group of insects. It has therefore been 

 thought desirable to have the original treatise thoroughly revised and 

 brought up to the present condition of the science. This laborious work 

 has been undertaken by the joint efforts of Drs. John Le Conte and George 

 H. Horn; and the new edition now nearly completed, has been put in 

 print as far as to page 480. Not more than a hundred pages will now 

 be required to finish this extensive systematic arrangement and descrip- 

 tion of the Coleoptera, and the work will be published early in 1883. 



In October of the past year, the Institution commenced the printing 

 of a General Catalogue of Scientific Periodicals published in all parts 

 of the world since 1665, compiled by Prof. H. Carringtou Bolton, of 

 Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. The plan of this catalogufi does not 

 include the proceedings and transactions of societies, nor does it in- 

 clude art journals or professional journals, that is, periodicals devoted 

 to the subjects of law, medicine, or theology. This work originally 

 brought down to the year 1874, by Prof. Bolton, it was at first supposed 

 would be published by Congress under the auspices of the Congressional 

 Library. The subsequent publication by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder of 

 his admirable " Catalogue of Scientific Serials of all countries (includ- 

 ing the transactions of learned societies), from 1633 to 1876," seemed 

 for the time to sui)ersede the work on which Professor Bolton had been 

 so long engaged. As the latter, however, included the large field of " ap- 

 plied" science (so called), such as the periodical literature of manufact- 

 ures, agriculture and horticulture, pharmacy, and technology in general 

 (not embraced in Mr. Scudder's catalogue), and as it presented the 

 great advantage of a purely alphabetical arrangement instead of the 

 geographical classification adopted by Mr. Scudder, the Institution 

 undertook its publication on condition that it should be continued to 



