EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



SO much new material liad been collected it was tlionght advisable to 

 refer the work anew to Professor De Saussure, from whom it has again 

 been received, and after having been a second time revised by Mr. 

 Norton will soon be sent to the press. 



The Institution in carrying out its original plan of the preparation of 

 manuals of natural history, has thus made provision for publications 

 on the coleoptera, lepidoptera, neuroptera, diptera, orthoptera, and 

 hymenoptera. Of the few remaining orders, a similar monograph of 

 the liemiptera, by P. K. Uhler, esq., has been prepared, and will be pub- 

 lished when the funds will permit. 



For many years the Institution has intended, in consequence of the 

 scattered nature of the accounts of the botany of the region west of the 

 Mississippi, and the absence of any text-booh in which correct descrip- 

 tions could be found, to publish a complete list of the plaiits, with all the 

 synonyms and species. For a working botanist, engaged in the study of 

 our western plants, the search for what has been written takes more time 

 and labor than all the rest of his work, besides which there is always 

 the probability of overlooking some writings of importance. The design 

 has not heretofore been carried out, on account of the pressure of other 

 operations, but recently the great need of this aid to botanical research 

 having been urged on the Institution by some of the principal botanists 

 of the country, arrangements have been made with Mr. Sereno Watson, 

 of New Haven, to prepare the work in question. The expense of prepar- 

 ation will be borne by private subscription, the Smithsonian Institution 

 paying for the clerical labor and for the i>ublication. Mr. Watson is 

 esteemed highly competent for the duty intrusted to him, and is favor- 

 ably known from his labors as botanist of the exploration of the fortieth 

 parallel^under Clarence King, esq. Good progress has been made in 

 the work, and during the year we expect the manuscript to be com- 

 pleted. 



In still further pursuance of the plan initiated by the Institution of 

 furnishing aids for the arrangement of collections, as illustrated by its 

 series of check-lists of specimens, an article by Professor Tlieodore Gill 

 is in process of publication, entitled " An Arrangement of the Families 

 of Mollusks." His sj'stem has been adopted provisionally as that by 

 which the extensive collections of the Smithsonian shells are to be arranged 

 and has been approved by some of the principal zoologists of the country. 

 To extend its benefits, and farnish a similar guide to other museums, 

 the list embraces families, recent and fossil, accepted by the best natu- 

 ralists of the day, although embodying results of special investigations 

 made by Professor Gill and Mr. Ball at the Institution. 



The Annual Eeport for the year 1869 was printed as heretofore, by 

 order of Congress, but there was a reduction of one thousand in the 

 number of extra copies usually furnished to the Institution. This re- 

 duction must have been the result of inadvertence, as we have long 

 urged upon Congress the great demand for the document as a reason 



