SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 9 



The Laboratory was built in 1923 to serve as a private research laboratory 

 connected with problems on the Foraminifera. Later one room was opened for 

 graduate students of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology who received instruction here. There is also room for visiting workers 

 on the Foraminifera. The building consists of laboratory rooms and rooms for 

 clerical work, library, etc., on the main floor, together with a steel and con- 

 crete addition somewhat separated from the main building but connected with 

 it, in which are housed the collections, special library, card catalogue, etc. The 

 basement is given up to rooms for preparation of material, photographic work, 

 and a room for carpentry work such as building cases, etc. There is gathered 

 together here a great deal of material from classic localities representing vari- 

 ous parts of the world, which has been acquired through exchange, collecting, 

 or purchase. There is a library of between 2,000 to 2,500 separates, including 

 practically all the important works on the Foraminifera. There is also a unique 

 card catalogue of figures and references to published records on the Foramin- 

 ifera. These, which number at the present time about 75,000 cards, have a copy 

 of the original figures pasted on the card with the references given, the original 

 place of publication, formation and locality, with often times the complete 

 description and notes. These are arranged by genera, by species under each 

 genus, and the references under each species chronologically. In addition there 

 is a separation of Recent, Tertiary, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Paleozoic, indi- 

 cated by colored tab cards. This makes it possible to very quickly find the 

 original figure of any species, or the records for a given formation. There 

 are also collections containing many thousand slides of identified species, many 

 of which are from the original type localities, together with a very consider- 

 able number of actual holotypes and figured specimens. These collections are 

 being augmented rapidly, and are eventually to go to the U. S. National 

 Museum where it is hoped active work will be continued on the group for a 

 long time as is now being done here. 



After several days at the Laboratory spent in reviewing past work 

 and planning for the future, and studying Doctor Cushman's methods, 

 we motored north along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Cod to Portland, 

 Maine. On this trip my attention was given over to the location of 

 outcrops of igneous rocks from which large specimens showing geo- 

 logical phenomena could be quarried for exhibition at the Museum. 

 Doctor Canu's interest, on the other hand, was concerned with the 

 collecting of Recent Bryozoa, which he found encrusting pebbles of 

 the igneous rocks or attached to the seaweed. Our present studies were 

 therefore far apart in time, his relating to the present while mine 

 dated back millions of years — almost to the beginning of earth history. 

 Figure 8 illustrates how a small area can serve such widely divergent 

 interests. Doctors Canu and Cushman are seen collecting Recent bryo- 

 zoans in the rocky cove (near Scituate, Mass.), while nearby can be 

 observed a dike of dark igneous rock cutting through the light colored 

 granite. 



