20 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



In 1881, when Prof. Lester F. Ward took charge of the collection of 

 fossil plants in the Museum, he found that the separation of the fossil 

 plants from the recent plants caused him much inconvenience in con- 

 nection with the identification of the former. Since that time, there- 

 fore, it has been customary to retain in the Museum such accessions of 

 recent plants as were needed by Professor Ward and other students in 

 connection with their paleo-botanical work. A second collection of 

 recent plants has thus been formed in the Museum building. It became 

 evident that the existence of two herbaria, each a part of the National 

 Herbarium, and each entirely separate in administration from the other, 

 was undesirable. Dr. George Vasey, Botanist of the Department of 

 Agriculture, has therefore, at the request of the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and with the consent of the Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture, accepted the position of Honorary Curator of the National 

 Herbarium. The Secretary of Agriculture has also agreed to the prop- 

 osition of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution that, as soon as 

 proper accommodation can be afforded to the National Herbarium in 

 one of the buildings of the National Museum, the portion of the Her- 

 barium now in the Department of Agriculture may be transferred and 

 combined with the collection now in the Museum building. 



In Dr. Vasey's report covering the remainder of the fiscal year (March 

 1 to June 30, 1889,) he states that no catalogue of the plants contained 

 in the Herbarium has yet been made, but that they are properly ar- 

 ranged in orders, genera, and species, and are labeled so as to be read- 

 ily accessible. 



In March, 1889, the catalogue of recent plants received in the Na- 

 tional Museum, contained 175 entries. No idea, however, of the extent 

 of the collection can be formed by this statement, since the first two 

 entries comprised 25,000 specimens, these representing the Ward and 

 Joad collections. With the beginning of the fiscal year 1889-1890 a 

 new catalogue will be opened by Dr. Vasey for the entry of recent 

 plants. 



FOSSIL PLANT SERIES. 



The cataloguing of fossil plants was first systematically commenced 

 in the year 1881 (?) by Prof. Leo Lesquereux, of Columbus, Ohio. 



Several entries of fossil plants are found in the early volumes of 

 the " Fossil Series " of catalogues. 



There is an extra catalogue kept, in which is entered the material 

 that had accumulated in the interval between the time at which 

 Professor Lesquereux discontinued the work of cataloguing and the 

 period at which it was resumed by Mr. Knowltou. This catalogue is 

 only provisional, the specimens when identified being re-entered in the 

 regular catalogue of the department. 



GRAPHIC ART SERIES. 



The Section of Graphic Arts has a special catalogue, in which up to 

 January 7, 1890, 3,233 entries had been made. 



