EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1018. 63 



Paleobotany. — Type material comprised the important accessions 

 in this section. The United States Geological Survey transferred 383 

 fossil plants, illustrating Professional Paper 108-F, by Dr. F. H. 

 Knowlton. Prof. E. W. Berry, Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 

 more, presented two lots from South America, the first from the 

 Tertiary rocks of Bolivia, valuable not only as type specimens but in 

 furnishing data for additions to the geologic history of that country, 

 the second from the Miocene of Peru ; and Prof. E. C. Case, Univer- 

 sity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, presented 28 specimens 

 from Beaver County, Oklahoma, described by Prof. Berry, at whose 

 request the collection was donated to the Museum. 



Dr. F. H. Knowlton continued his researches on the flora of the 

 Denver formation, but has been unable to bring this work to a close 

 because of failure to secure illustrations due to war work by the 

 Survey. 



Prof. E. W. Berry and Dr. Harvey Bassler, of Johns Hopkins 

 University, studied paleobotanical collections, the former devoting 

 his time to Cenozoic plants and the latter consulting the library and 

 the Carboniferous plants in furthering his work on a monograph of 

 Maryland forms. 



Exhibition collections. — The acquisition of many fine exhibition 

 specimens of ores of the steel-hardening metals, and the interest 

 recently aroused by their importance in the manufacture of muni- 

 tions, led to a complete rearrangement of the exhibits of these mate- 

 rials. So far as possible, these were segregated and arranged in a 

 group of cases, special cases being devoted to the uranium-vanadium 

 minerals and Bolivian tungsten ores. These cases were supplemented 

 by several special exhibits, chief among them being a large specimen 

 of scheelite, weighing more than a ton, and said to contain approxi- 

 mately $2,000 worth of the metal, and a mass of the newly discovered 

 sulphide, tungstenite. 



A number of other recently acquired specimens were installed sys- 

 tematically, and the entire economic series in systematic and applied 

 geology was inspected, many old blocks replaced, and several hun- 

 dred typed labels supplied. 



Important improvements were made in the copper exhibit by 

 cutting and polishing some of the larger specimens, thus adding to 

 their beauty and educational value. 



For the first time since its installation upon removal from the old 

 building, the collection of building stones was overhauled with a 

 view to improvement in blocking and labeling, and similar work 

 was begun with the systematic collection on the first exhibition floor. 



The entire meteorite collection was installed in new cases built 

 with a special view to the needs of such an exhibit and to the space 



