SECRETARY'S REPORT 17 



In the course of iiii ecological survey in the vicinity of Point Burrow, 

 Alaska, Prof. G. E. MacGinitie, formerly director of the Arctic Re- 

 search Laboratory, and Mrs. MacGinitie, assembled nearly 7,500 mis- 

 cellaneous invertebrates and approximately 1,600 marine shells, and 

 through their active interest these collections came to the Museum as 

 a transfer from the Office of Naval Research. 



As gifts, the division of marine invertebrates received nearly 3,000 

 crayfishes and other fresh-water invertebrates collected in Indiana 

 and the TVA region by Dr. Rendell Rhoacles; 367 specimens of 

 sponges, including 98 types, collected in Micronesia by Dr. M. W. de 

 Laubenfels while participating in the scientific investigations spon- 

 sored by the Pacific Science Board, National Research Council ; and 

 437 miscellaneous invertebrates dredged off the west coast of Florida, 

 a gift of Dr. J. Brookes Knight. A selected series of more than 5,000 

 copepods and other marine invertebrates were collected for the Mu- 

 seum in Puget Sound, Wash., by Associate Curator Paul L. Illg. As 

 an exchange with Dr. R. Zariquiey A., Barcelona, the Museum received 

 a selected set of decapod crustaceans from the Mediterranean coast 

 of Spain. Types and paratypes of a number of invertebrates were 

 received as gifts. 



Most noteworthy of the 208 accessions received during the year by 

 the division of mollusks were 275 marine forms from Malindi, pre- 

 sented by the Kenya Colony Game Department, Nairobi, through R. 

 Teague ; nearly 2,000 land mollusks from Cuba, a gift from Sr. Oscar 

 Acalcle Ledon, of Cienf uegos ; 604 land and fresh- water mollusks from 

 Panama and Ecuador, transferred by Dr. James Zetek, Canal Zone 

 Biological Area ; 105 Japanese mollusks from the Zoological Institute, 

 Kyoto University; and the types and paratypes of several recently 

 described mollusks. Types of parasitic nematodes, amielids, trema- 

 todes, and cestodes were received from several specialists. 



Several interesting ecliinoderms, including a specimen of Asterias 

 vestita^ described by Thomas Say in 1825 and not seen heretofore since 

 then, w^ere accessioned this year from the Institute of Fisheries 

 Research, University of North Carolina. 



Botany. — C. V. IMorton, curator, division of ferns, collected 2,610 

 plants in Honduras and 851 in West Virginia and Michigan for the 

 National Herbarium. Justice William O. Douglas presented a col- 

 lection of 134 mounted plants from Lebanon, and 825 plants obtained 

 in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands by Dr. Louis H. Jordal were trans- 

 ferred from the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy. 

 Other gifts included 2,234 plants from the Museo de Historia Natural 

 "Javier Prado," Lima, Peru ; 662 Mexican plants from the Univei-sity 

 of Washington; and 522 Venezuelan plants from Brother Gines. As 

 exchanges, the National Herbarium received 16,645 specimens, of 



