KEPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 225 



library. By this liberal arrangement the officers of the Mi^eum are 

 able to consult a considerable number of books not in its library. 



One of the most important accessions is the Meek library, consisting 

 of the books collected by the late Professor Meek and purchased from 

 his estate by the Smithsonian Institution. It includes many interleaved 

 copies of important couchological works, filled with manuscript notes 

 and drawings. The Linnasau Society of London has generously given 

 a complete set of its valuable Transactions and Proceedings, and in 

 like manner the Liunsean Society and the Entomological Society of Xew 

 South Wales. The French Academy has given a-partial series of the 

 Comptes Eendus. The Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Geo- 

 logical Institute of Vienna have also sent partial sets of their publica- 

 tions. The French Government has presented a copy of the " Etudes" 

 of the Mission Scientifique au Mexique. We are indebted to the Bureau 

 of Statistics and Industry of New Jersey for a set of its reports. It is 

 impossible to refer to the contributions of individuals in this place. 



Department of Plants. 



The Museum has acquired, through the mediation of Prof. Asa Gray, 

 as a gift from the Eoyal Gardens and Herbarium at Kew, England, the 

 extensive herbarium of Mr. Joad. Concerning this collection Professor 

 Gray reports that " it is very large, apparently representing almost all 

 European, temperature Asiatic, and North African plants, in copious 

 specimens from the best botanists and best collections, which have 

 been distributed in sets — in perfect order — having been wonderfully 

 cared for." 



This collection has been thoroughly mounted and relabelled under 

 the supervision of Professor Gray and Mr. Sereno Watson, at the 

 Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, and wiU soon be available, for study in 

 Washington. 



The herbarium of the National Museum, which was in early days 

 deposited in New York under the care of Dr. John Torrey, was in 1868 

 brought to Washington and placed in the custody of the Department 

 of Agriculture, where it has been well cared for by Dr. George Va- 

 sey, the botanist of that institution. This herbarium is, as is well 

 known, particularly rich in the plants of North America, including the 

 collections of all the Government exploring expeditions, as well as ex- 

 pensive material gathered by exchange and special exploration under 

 the direction of Dr. Vasey. 



Section of Materia Medica. 



Dr. James M. Flint, honorary curator of the section of materia medica, 

 reports as follows upon the material under his charge: 



" 1. The materia medica section of the Museum has been enriched dur- 

 ing the year 1882 by the accession of 1,590 specimens of medicines, most 

 of them drugs in their crude state, as received by the manufacturing 

 ■ H. Mis. 26 15 



