142 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



negie Museum will tend to make the institution a focal point for pale- 

 ontologists who wish to familiarize themselves with the results of the 

 labors of European students in their favorite field of research. The 

 Director of the Museum is making arrangements to have the entire col- 

 lection brought over from Belgium to Pittsburgh in the near future. 



The expedition to Florida in quest of ornithological material under 

 the care of Mr. Todd resulted in the acquisition of over thirteen hun- 

 dred specimens, representing a great deal of desirable material. 



Mr. J. A. Shafer, who accompanied Dr. N. L. Britton, of the 

 New York Botanical Garden, to Cuba, returned in the latter part of 

 May, having remained somewhat longer on the island than did the 

 leader of the expedition. The result of the joint labors of the two 

 collectors has been the addition to the herbarium at Bronx Park and 

 at the Carnegie Museum of about a thousand species of plants in good 

 condition. 



The fourth Memoir of the series now in process of publication by 

 the Museum, before these lines are printed will have come from the 

 press and been distributed. It is a masterly paper by Dr. William 

 Harris Ashmead, of the United States National Museum, based upon 

 the collection of South American Chakidoidea made by Mr. Herbert 

 H. Smith, and belonging to the Carnegie Museum. Dr. Ashmead is 

 recognized as being one of the very foremost students of the hymen- 

 optera now living. We hope to be able shortly to publish still other 

 papers from his pen. He has now in hand other portions of the great 

 collections belonging to the Carnegie Museum, and has promised to 

 report upon them. 



Dr. Ashmead comes very honestly by his taste for scientific and lit- 

 erary labor. He is descended from a long line of intellectual and dis- 

 tinguished men. His mother was the daughter of Thomas Graham, a 

 lineal descendant of James Fitz-James Graham, the Earl of Montrose, 

 or " Claverhouse," whose name is famous in Scottish story. His 

 grandfather, Thomas Graham, was one of the founders of the public 

 school system in the city of Philadelphia. Another ancestor, John 

 Kittera, was Chief Justice of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary 



