256 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



in the study of the Cretaceous fossils of Martha's Viiiyard and adjacent 

 islands. I then joined Prof. William M. Fontaine, and with him made a 

 careful examination of the Triassic formation in the Connecticut Val- 

 ley, extending the investigation to the northern limit of the Trias at 

 Gill, Mass., and returning- to Washington on September 1. During 

 the spring months much time was spent in studying the Potomac 

 formation, as exposed in the vicinity of Washington. The office work 

 has been mainly the determination of fossil plants, being especially a 

 continuation of my investigation of the flora of the Laramie Group. 



Early in November, 1890, the services of Mr. Benedict Juni were 

 secured, and from that time until May 1, 1891, he was constantly en- 

 gaged upon the collections. The first work was a thorough rearrange- 

 ment of all the Cretaceous and Tertiary specimens. These had at first 

 been arranged systematically without regard to horizons, but are now 

 arranged geographically and also systematically under each geological 

 group, so that a student wishing to see all the specimens from any one 

 locality can now find them together. The species were carefully fitted 

 into small pasteboard trays, and these economically into the regular 

 unit drawers. A complete label was printed on the typewriter for each 

 species, which was supplemented by a card catalogue arranged alpha- 

 betically under localities, so that it is now possible to find, by the aid 

 of the catalogue and the clearly printed labels, any specimen or species 

 that may be desired. 



Similar work was also begun for the Carboniferous material, and 

 many labels were written, but this was not completed. 



For a short time during the early part of the year Mr. Th. Holm was 

 engaged in making an exchange of plants with the Stockholm Museum, 

 selecting for this purpose some 800 species; but this important w^ork 

 was discontinued, as he was later transferred to another department. 



The months of July and August were spent by Mr. David White in 

 working out the stratigraphy of Martha's Vineyard, especially that 

 portion proved by him to be Cretaceous, and in tracing the connection 

 between the eastern outcrop of the Cretaceous clays through the inter- 

 vening islands to the Amboy region of New Jersey. The remainder of 

 the year has been occu]ned by him chiefly in work on the Carboniferous 

 plant collections of the U. S. Geological Survey and U. S. National 

 Museum. The report of the extensive collection made by Dr. W. P. 

 Jenney, of the Geological Survey, is nearly finished, and will be pub- 

 lished as an illustrated l)nlletin of the Survey. In addition to cur. 

 rent work on other collections, a portion of his time has been engaged 

 in increasing and perfecting his "Bibliography of Paleobotany." He 

 has pul)lished numerous reviews of ])aleobotanical memoirs in the 

 American Journal of Science and the Botanical Gazette. 



Mr. Charles S, Prosser spent part of July and August in field work 

 on the Devonian of eastern New York, and determined that the Hamil- 

 ton fauna of that region is succeeded by the fauna and flora of the 



