REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 263 



latter are now in good order, and the facilities for work are such that 

 little expenditure will be required the present year. 



In the laboratory rooms there are upwards of 15,000 specimens, rep- 

 resenting over 1,000 species, that will be ultimately added to the col- 

 lection. 



DEPARTMENT OF FOSSIL PLANTS. 



Lester F. Ward, Honorary Curator. 

 Accessions. 



The most important addition which was made to the department dur- 

 ing the year was a large collection of fossil plants from the Green Eiver 

 group of Elko Station, Nev., Bell's Fish Cliff, Alkali Stage Station, 

 Wyoming, and Florissant, Colorado, but chiefly from the last named 

 locality, consisting of more than 700 specimens belonging to nearly 100 

 species. These have been numbered and catalogued and form part of 

 the reserve series. 



The only other addition of numerical importance consists of 23G 

 specimens from various localities in Europe and America, which were 

 found in the north tower of the Smithsonian building, and which have 

 also been duly installed. 



The present state of the collection is as follows : 



Number of specimens 4, 924 



Number of species 871 



Of which there are — 



Paleozoic. 236 



Cretaceous 142 



Tertiary 493 



At the close of the year, in order to make room for a large collection 

 of fresh material for study, it was found necessary to remove some of 

 the duplicates. These were taken entirely from the Paleozoic and Me- 

 sozoic series, 896 specimen from the former and 195 from the latter, 

 making 1,091 specimens. They were all carefully selected from the 

 least perfect of the most abundantly represented species and have been 

 placed in drawers, properly labeled, and are ready to be sent to the 

 Armory building for storage. 



DEPARTMENT OF LITHOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOLOGY. 



George P. Merrill, Acting Curator. 

 Accessions. 



The total number of entries upon the department catalogue during 

 the year has been 2,311, comprising 2,738 specimens. Strictly speaking 

 however these cannot all be considered as accessions of the year, since 

 many of the specimens have been the property of the Museum for a 

 much longer period, but never before catalogued. 



