REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



Ko. 579 is "An Account of the ProgTess in Cbemistry in the year 

 1883." By Prof. H. Carrington Bolton. 8vo pamphlet of 31 pp. 



No. 580 is "An Account of the Progress in Mineralogy in the year 

 1883." By Prof. Edward S. Dana. 8vo pamphlet of 10 pp. 



1^0. 581 is "An Account of the Progress in Botany in the year 1883." 

 By Prof. William G. Farlow. 8vo pamphlet of 18 pp. 



There has also been reprinted an edition of No. 34 (originally pub- 

 lished in March, 1859): "Directions for Collecting, Preserving, and 

 Transporting Specimens of Natural History." Third edition. 8vo 

 pamphlet of 40 f»p. 



Forest Trees. — Among the earliest objects receiving the attention of 

 the Smithsonian Institution was the preparation of a vrork upon the 

 " Forestry of North America," under the direction of Dr. Gray, and for 

 which quite a number of plates were prepared more than thirty years 

 ago. 



In part the cost of the publication and in i:>art the pressure of other 

 duties UI30U Professor Gray have prevented the completion of this me- 

 moir ; and a jiroposition having been made by Prof. 0. S. Sargent, of 

 Brookline, Mass., to take up and complete the work, the same was 

 accepted, and Mr. Faxon was authorized to make the necessary draw- 

 ings of the trees from living or fresh specimens. The magnitude, how- 

 ever, of this undertaking proved to be a little more than the Institution 

 could compass, and an arrangement has recently been made with Pro- 

 fessor Sargent to refund the cost of these drawings and to receive them, 

 so that he may use them in the publication which he has arranged to 

 make with a private publisher. 



Among the treatises in preparation for publication by the Institution 

 may first be mentioned the beginning of a complete work on the "Bot- 

 any of North America," by Prof. Asa Gray. 



Part II is in press. It comprises the Gamopetalous orders from 

 Caprifoliacece to GompositcBj inclusive. An enumeration by the author 

 indicates that of the Caprifoliacece there are 8 genera and 47 species ; of 

 Euhiacew, 26 genera and 86 species ; of Valerianacew, 2 genera and 22 

 species ; of Dipsacacew, 1 genus and 2 species (naturalized) ; of Compos- 

 itce, 237 genera and 1,610 species. It will form an octavo volume of 

 nearly 500 pages. 



Bulletins of the National Museum. — As explained in the last annual re- 

 port, a supplementary edition of the Bulletins of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, from the stereotype plates issued under the direction of 

 the honorable Secretary of the Interior, is printed at the expense of the 

 Institution, and is included in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 

 tions. Seven scientific monographs on the geology and on the flora and 

 fauna of Bermuda, extracted from Bulletin No. 25 of the Museum series, 

 have been thus reproduced during the year. 



"The Geology of Bermuda, by William North Bice, Ph. D." (No. 563 



