REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61 



ber of specimens at 25,000, including the old Smithsonian collections and 

 the accessions I'rom the recent Government surveys and other sources 

 up to the present time. The most important accession of the year is 

 that of Devonian and Carboniferous fossils from the United States 

 Geological Survey, many of them types of new species, and forming the 

 basis of Mr. Walcott's recent " Paleontology of th*e Eureka District, 

 Nevada." 



Department of Invertebrate Fossils {Mesozoic and Cenozoic). — The ac- 

 cessions of the year consist of 85 boxes from the Geological Survey, 

 embracing collections made in California, Oregon, New Jersey, Florida, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi, and 15 miscellaneous lots sent from private 

 sources to the Museum. The catalogue entries number 1,158. From 

 this department, as from many others, there comes a request for more 

 room. These requests we are striving to grant as rapidly as the ap- 

 propriation for the construction of cases will allow, but it is doubtful if 

 the necessities of the case can be fully met until a new building can be 

 put up. 



Department of Plants, Fossil and Recent. — The collection of fossil plants 

 now contains 923 distinct species identified and installed. The report 

 of Professor Ward contains elaborate statistics of the collection, from 

 which it appears that 7,291 specimens have already been catalogued. 

 The accessions of the year have been of but slight importance. The 

 Joad collection of recent plants has not yet been unpacked, owing to 

 lack of room, but will soon be arranged and in proper condition for 

 study. During the year Mr. William E. Smith, sujierintendent of the 

 Government Botanic Garden, has placed in the rotunda of the new 

 building a number of very beautiful palms, which add very much to the 

 attractiveness of the apartment, and which., being selected with refer- 

 ence to their economic importance to man, will, when labeled, furnish 

 instruction as well as pleasure to the visitors. 



Department of Lithology and Physical Geology. — Mr. Merrill reports a 

 total number of entries amounting to 2,541, including not less than 3,000 

 specimens administered upon duiing the year. Prominent among the 

 accessions is a series of rocks and tufas from Utah, Nevada, and Cali- 

 fornia, collected by Mr. I. C. Kussell and transferred by the Geological 

 Survey, and a large collection of building stones from John S. F. Batchen. 

 Mr. Merrill prepared a large and important series of specimens for the 

 New Orleans Exhibition, and in this work had the efficient assistance of 

 Mr. L. H. Merrill, and the services of a number of stone-cutters for some 

 months. 



Some remarkably beautiful colored photographic enlargements on 

 glass, illustrating the structure of twelve selected types of rocks, were 

 among the most striking i)roducts of the year's work in Mr. Merrill's 

 laboratory; also a series of colored sketches showing the appearance of 

 various kinds of building stones used in architectural work. The col- 

 lections sent to New Orleans included a type collection of the building 



