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Zoophytes. The collection in this department consists of several tin cases 

 containing medusae, star-fishes and sea urchins, presented by Edwin Harri- 

 son, Esq., of St. Louis. These, when properly arranged in glass jars, will 

 form an interesting feature of our Museum. To the Smithsonian Institution 

 we are also indebted for dried star-fishes, and several species of corallines. 



Botany. Our botanical collection embraces an extensive series of lichens 

 and mosses, amounting to several hundred species, chiefly from Western 

 States and Territories. These were collected by Dr. T. C. Hilgard of this 

 city, and by him presented and arranged in our Museum. We are indebted 

 to Dr. Engelmann for a suit of canes and woods from various portions of the 

 United States, and to Dr. McPheeters, and Mr. G. C. Broadhead, for col- 

 lections of plants from Missouri. Besides the material in our own Museum, 

 we may mention the magnificent Herbaria of our resident members, Dr. En- 

 gelmann and Mr. Henry Shaw, comprising many thousand specimens col- 

 lected with great labor and at great expense from all parts of the world, and 

 which these gentlemen, with great liberality, have rendered accessible to the 

 student of Botany. 



Ethnology This department contains distorted crania from the mound 

 near Little Rock, Ark., also stone axes, spear and arrow heads, quoits, shells, 

 and coralline beads, and other aboriginal implements and ornaments from 

 Western States. The principal donors were Drs. Wislizenus, Briggs, George 

 G. Shumard, and C. A. Pope. We may also mention some Indian costumes, 

 war implements, cooking utensils, and ornaments of the Upper Missouri 

 Indians, donated by Charles P. Chouteau, Dr. C. A. Pope, and Col. Vaughn, 

 and an interesting series of some twenty figures representing costumes of the 

 natives of the East Indies, from the Rev. C. C. Marsh. In this department 

 "we find a beautiful series of porcelain ornaments in bas-relief, representing 

 figures of men and animals, and used as decorations in the great Porcelain 

 Tower of China; also highly polished bricks employed in its construction. 

 This very interesting collection was obtained by Mr. William Clark of this 

 city, shortly after the destruction of the Tower, and by him deposited in our 

 Museum. 



Comparative Anatomy. Our Museum is unusually rich in fine specimens 

 of skeletons and crania of mammals, birds and reptiles, donated by C. P. 

 Chouteau, Col. Vaughn, Dr. Stevens, Lieut. Bryan, U.S.A., Dr. Shumard, 

 and the oflicers and employees of the American Fur Company. The total 

 number of specimens cannot now be ascertained, but they maybe estimated 

 at several hundred, included in upwards of one hundred species. They con- 

 stitute by far the largest cabinet of the kind in the Mississippi Valley. Among 

 the more prominent objects may be enumerated the crania of the moose, deer, 

 elk and antelope, with antlers attached; of the bison, Rocky Mountain goat 

 and sheep, grizzly and black bear, prairie wolf (several species), wild-cat, 

 American panther, lynx, otter, martin, prairie dog, &c., &c. We also pos- 

 sess a fine specimen of the skull of the Bos urus of Europe, a species becom- 

 ing rapidly extinct, and now only found living in the parks of the Empe- 

 ror of Russia. Besides our own collection. Dr. Chas. A. Pope has deposited 



