REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1920. 87 



and the insects. The exact condition of the echinoderm collections 

 will not be known definitely until the new curator has had time to 

 thoroughly overhaul the collection. 



The present condition of the herbarium, in the Avords of the asso- 

 ciate curator, is in general as satisfactory as might be expected con- 

 sidering the smallness of the staff and the numerous and varied du- 

 ties involved. The crowding of specimens in the general herbarium 

 will necessarily remain acute until additional space has been pro- 

 vided by the balcony planned for the west end of the herbarium hall. 

 The erection of such a balcony has been accepted as the most feasible 

 means of providing additional case room, and it is hoped that this 

 project may be taken up and speedily pushed to completion. The 

 cryptogamic herbaria remain practically as at the close of the last 

 fiscal year. Following the practice of previous years in distributing 

 duplicates as promptly as they can be sent out to advantage or cir- 

 cumstances will permit, there is no considerable accumulation of 

 duplicate material. The specimens on hand at the present time arc 

 mainly valuable material from Alaska, British East Africa, Panama, 

 and Mexico, aggregating about 20,000 specimens and filling about 

 ten unit cases separate from the herbarium proper. These are nearly 

 all unmounted. A considerable portion will be sent out during the 

 coming year. 



RESEARCHES FOB THE BENEFIT OF THE MUSEUM. 



The appended bibliography to some extent reflects the scientific 

 activities of the Museum staff, inasmuch as it enumerates the publica- 

 tions that have actually been published during the year. An enor- 

 mous amount of research work does not find expression in this way 

 and. in fact, does not find expression except on the labels of the speci- 

 mens in the collections and on the pages of the Museum catalogues. 

 A great number of specimens of the more common and conspicuous 

 species, especially of our own flora and fauna, may be identified off- 

 hand at a mere glance or a rapid examination, but with the increasing 

 influx of material from distant and unexplored regions, it often 

 requires long and weary search through a technical literature scat- 

 tered through innumerable scientific books, periodicals, and transac- 

 tions of learned societies and published in many and often little 

 known languages. Moreover, not only are the collectors devoting 

 more time and labor to the search for the more minute objects, but 

 modern research tends toward more and more refinement, and ex- 

 tends to more and more minute structures. Where formerly a macro- 

 scopic inspection or a small hand lens was considered sufficient, a 

 greater power or the assistance of the binocular microscope is now 

 required. In many cases it is even necessary for the Museum worker 

 to actually monograph a whole group before he is enabled to identify 

 his collection, work which does not always lead to publication, at 



