REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 57 



the Miisenm series of Ordovician fossils from the Ked I\iver of the 

 North, and Prof. Charles E. Beecher, of Yale iMiiversity. assisted iu 

 the arranoenient of the syuoptic (.'ollection of trilobites. 



Collections of fossils, made either directly by the National Museum 

 orthroujjh its iiiMuence, are arriving' faster than tlie staff of the.dei)art- 

 ment can properly transfer them to the exhibition or study .series. 

 Material transmitted from the U. S. Geological Survey is also rapidly 

 accumulating. Although this material has served the purpose for 

 which it was collected by the Survey, it is not in condition for tinal 

 disposition in the study or exhibition series. The services of a pre- 

 parator are reijuired, and the specimens must be finally identified and 

 registered. Owing to lack of assistance and insuClicicnt drawer-space, 

 these collections have been accumulating- for some time past, and there 

 are now in storage 880 boxes of i)ractically unworked material. - 



The most important gap in the paleontological collections of the 

 Museum is in the vertebrate series. The assistant curator has. during 

 the past three years, devoted many months to the work of gathering 

 and preparing nuiterial of three skeletons of the large cetacean, Zenylo- 

 don cetoldes. More than 2li5 boxes of vertebrate material are in storage 

 awaiting preparation. In addition to this the U. S. (leological Survey, 

 through Prof O. C. Marsh, of New Haven, desires to gradually turn 

 over to the ^NEuseum the vast collections of vertebrate material which 

 have been accumulating during the past ten or twelve years. Upon 

 the gallery now being constructed iu the southeast court will be ])laced 

 the exhibition series of fossil plants which at present occupies the wall- 

 cases along two sides of the ground floor in that court. 



The total number of specimens received during the year is estimated 

 at 5,.'>(»0. The number of catalogue entries is shown in the following 

 table : 



DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY (NATIONAL nERnAKir:\r). 



^Fr. F. V. Coville, honorary curator of this department, states that 

 there were 370 accessions during the year, an increa.se of 134 over the 

 previous year. The material received is also of greater scientific value, 

 the opportunities for advantageous exchange having been largely 

 increa.sed since the transfer of the Herbarium to the National Museum 

 building. 



