40 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Department of Inverfehraic Fossils [Ptdeozoic). — Mr. Charles D. Wal- 

 cott, honorary curator of this department, reports that his principal 

 work has consisted in identifying and labelling a collection of Carbon- 

 iferous fossils which were in the old Smithsonian collection. This work 

 is now well advanced, and will soon be completed as far as identifying 

 the species from the old records can be done. In the laboratory the 

 time of the curator has been chiefly devoted to the preparation and 

 stttdy of the Cambrian faunas of North America. This has been done 

 in connection with his work for the Geological Survey. A large num- 

 ber of types and a great quantity of specimens of described species 

 will bo added to the Museum collections as a result of this work. A 

 number of minor accessions have been received from various persons 

 throughout the country. A large addition was made to the collection 

 in the latter part of 1884, a full discussion of which was presented in 

 the report for that year, and another A^aluable contribution from the 

 Geological Survey will i)robably be made in the latter part of the pres- 

 ent year. 



Department of Invertebrate Fossils (Meso-cenozoic).- — Dr. Charles A. 

 White, the honorary curator of this department, states that a number 

 of important accessions have been received during the first six months 

 of this year, and that some of them constitute new additions to the col- 

 lection. Descriptions of these have been j)ublished in the various bul- 

 letins of the United States Geological Survey. The work of preparing 

 the collections of the Museum has been in jirogress, and the installation 

 of types has been commenced. Since the beginning of the year con- 

 siderable space has been assigned to this department in the gallery of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and the work of i)reparing materials for 

 exhibition has steadily progressed. The space in the southeast court 

 of the Museum l)uilding is occupied by specimens belonging to this de- 

 partment which have been turned over by the Geological Survey to 

 the Museum, and in this court the collections are prepared for instal- 

 lation. 



Departments of Fossil and Recent Plants. — Prof. Lester F. Ward, cura- 

 tor, reports that the work of his department was exclusively confined 

 to fossil plants until near the close of the year 1884, and no collections 

 of recent plants were received until February last, when rooms were 

 assigned to him for the ])urpose, and the large Joad collection from 

 Kew was placed in his charge. With this Professor Ward joined his 

 own collection, consisting of nearly 5,000 species. The two collections 

 combined form a nucleus of not less than 14,000 species, including 

 twice as many herbarium specimens for a future herbarium. He sub- 

 mits the following suggestion: 



" All botanical collections have for many years been turned over to 

 the Department of Agriculture, to be cared for by the botanist of that 

 Department. When in 1881 I was requested to take charge of the 

 fossil plants of the National Museum, and consented to do so, I per- 



