REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 23 



grains, seeds, nuts, and various agricultural products, together with a 

 small series of fibers, a portion of them from Philippine Isles. 



Many of the South American exhibits vrcre given almost uncondition- 

 ally, and in two or three instances the Department was fortunate in 

 securing the entire exhibit as it stood. 



Brazil donated samples of all of its seeds and grains, some nuts, &c., 

 with samples of flour, starch, mandioca, tapioca^ and other native food 

 products ; native fibers, many of them curious and interesting, flax, 

 cotton, silk in raw state, &c. ; inate, cocoa, cofiee, sugar, and tobacco — 

 many kinds peculiar to the country — in the leaf and manufactured ; 

 wax, gums, oils, dyes, and a large collection of medicinal oils ami other 

 preparations, and materia medica, principally dried roots, leaves, barks, 

 &c., of medicinal plants. 



The agricultural display of Venezuela included thirty varieties of 

 coffee, half as many of cocoa, specimens of grains, seeds, beans, pease, 

 &c. ; samples of native miscellaneous fibers, with a few of their manu- 

 factures; oils, liquors, and materia medica; also a series of fruits pre- 

 served in alcohol, in all, several hundred specimens. 



A similar collection was also received from the Argentine Eepublic, 

 much more valuable, however, in regard to its fibers, as it included a 

 full exhibit of the wools of the country in the fleece. 



The Chilian collection embraced a representative collection of the 

 cereals and seeds of the country, with some minor products of agricul- 

 ture; and a like collection from Peru includes, in addition, about forty 

 samples of native wines and liquors. 



Coming nearer home, Mexico presents samples of her agricultural 

 products, and these, with a few small collections obtained from exhibits 

 from our own country, complete the list of donations received from the 

 exhibition, at its close, to be placed in our own museum. 



In conclusion, I have only to say that when the gallery in contempla- 

 tion shall have been erected in our Museum Hall, giving an additional 

 space of 3,000 square feet, or 8,000 in all, and when appropriation shall 

 have been made for the proper preparation and display of this valuable 

 mass of material, the work will be commenced at once and pushed to 

 completion. 



Much time and labor, however, will have to be expended on the col- 

 lection in classifying, arranging, and labeling, as samples in duplicate 

 must be prepared from many of the countries for donations to other in- 

 stitutions; a condition required of the Department when the collections 

 were presented. The Smithsonian Institution also desires a small series 

 from each country represented, for exhibition in the Ethnological Hall 

 of its Museum, when the whole shall have been examined and our own 

 series displayed. 



As to the advantages accruing to the Department in the possession 

 of the material it has been so fortunate iii securing, it is speaking within 

 bounds to say that in fibers alone, in the number of specimens and value 

 of the collection, the Museum is far ahead of any other Museum in this 

 country, and is a rival of the Museums of the Old World, and that an 

 appropriation of $100,000 at any other time would hardly have proved 

 sufiicient for bringing together a similar general collection to the one 

 now in the possession of the Department, which has been secured by 

 very limited exchange, and by the simple cost of transportation to 

 Washington. 



I am, respectfully, CHAS. E. DODGE, 



Assista7it Entomologist. 



TowNEND Glover, 



Entomologist. 



