50 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 



tion, and 3 specimens of Permian reptiles, including a complete skull 

 of Eryops and a part of a skeleton of Dimetrodon, obtained in ex- 

 change from the American Museum of Natural History. A series of 

 the teeth and jaws of fossil mammals from the Fort Union formation 

 of Montana was purchased, and a collection of mammal and sharks 

 teeth from the phosphate deposits near Mulberry, Florida, was trans- 

 ferred by the United States Geological Survey. 



The principal additions in paleobotany consisted of specimens 

 of plants from the Coal Measures of Butler County, Pennsylvania, 

 presented by Mr. Kemp G. Acker, of Washington, and Mr. Theodore 

 Gubler, of Butler, Pennsylvania. 



General work on the collections. — The transfer of the geological 

 collections from the old Museum building to the new, begun the pre- 

 vious year, was continued as rapidly as the necessary cases could be 

 provided, and was completed except, as to a few of the exhibition 

 series. A tentative rearrangement of the reserve collections was also 

 in large part accomplished. The moving furnished an excellent op- 

 portunity for a thorough overhauling of the specimens, during which 

 many duplicates were sorted out, to be made available for distribution 

 in the future. From the reserve collections, in all instances where 

 the amount of material is extensive, it has been sought to select study 

 series, including types, which have been assigned the more con- 

 venient places for reference on the working floors, while the attic 

 space, though readily accessible, is being used for the storage of those 

 portions of the collections for which there is the least demand. The 

 department of geology occupies parts of all the floors on the east 

 side of the building, but a large share of the Tertiary fossils is cared 

 for in connection with the recent mollusks on the west side, and the 

 unworked material in Cambrian paleontology is kept in the labora- 

 tories of Doctor Walcott, in the Smithsonian building. 



The material in applied geology selected for ready reference and 

 arranged on the third floor includes all type collections described in 

 current Government publications and such other collections as are 

 likely to be of active interest, aggregating about 16,000 specimens; 

 and a systematic drawer series of economic occurrences, numbering 

 about 9,000 specimens, designed to meet the requirements for greater 

 .refinement of detail in study than is offered by the exhibition series. 

 A system of indexing, in course of preparation, will afford a classi- 

 fied record of exactly what is available for study in the combined 

 collections and indicate the location of the material, whether in the 

 storage or the exhibition cases. 



The overhauling, cleaning, and numbering of all specimens in the 

 reserve collection of mineralogy was completed during the year. The 

 study series, unencumbered by duplicates or other unnecessary ma- 

 terial, has also been systematically arranged in drawers, in accord- 



