20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



thraria. A specimen showing an assemblage of these ancient plant 

 remains had long been needed in the fossil-plant exhibition series in 

 the Museum. 



Later in the year, Dr. Bassler proceeded to Dayton, Ohio, to pre- 

 pare for shipment to Washington the largest entire American tri- 

 lobite so far discovered. The trilobite was uncovered by the pick of 

 a Avorkman in the excavations for the Huffman conservancy dam, 

 6 miles east of Dayton. Mr. Arthur E. Morgan, chief engineer of 

 the Miami conservancy district, recognized the scientific value of the 

 fossil animal and presented it to the Institution, where it now forms 

 a most unique and instructive exhibit in the hall of invertebrate 

 paleontology of the National Museum. The specimen is of special 

 value since it has become the type of a new species, Isotelus brachyce- 

 phalus, described by Dr. August F. Foerste, of Dayton, Ohio. 



THE COLLINS-GARNER FRENCH CONGO EXPEDITION. 



The " Collins-Garner expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian 

 Institution," which had been collecting biological material in the 

 French Congo since the summer of 1918, returned to this country 

 early in 1919, but the collections resulting from the expedition were 

 incorporated into the Museum series of African material during the 

 past fiscal year. Mr. C. R. W. Aschemeier, who represented the 

 Institution, collected and turned over to the Museum some 2,500 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates, an invaluable 

 addition to the Museum collections. . 



THE SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 



Last year it was announced that an expedition to Africa had been 

 organized to collect plants and animals needed by the Museum to sup- 

 plement the magnificent collections made on that continent by Col. 

 Theodore Roosevelt and other explorers. This expedition, under the 

 title of the " Smithsonian African expedition, under the direction of 

 Edmund Heller in conjunction with the Universal Film Manufac- 

 turing Co." sailed on July 16 on the steamship City of Benares, 

 arriving in Cape Town August 13. Besides Mr. Heller, the Institu- 

 tion was represented by Mr. H. C. Raven, who has in former years 

 made collections for the Smithsonian in Borneo, Celebes, and other 

 regions. 



In the vicinity of Cape Town, Mr. Raven was able to collect only 

 insects and invertebrates, and from there he went to the Addo Bush, 

 where 19 days were spent in collecting small mammals and birds. 

 Going through Durban and Johannesburg, Mr. Raven spent two 

 weeks collecting at Ottoshoop in the Transvaal, after which he pro- 

 ceeded to Victoria Falls, and from there he and Doctor Shantz, who 



