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THE MUSEUM COLLECTION OF FOSSIL PLANTS. 
Tue OricinaL Co-LectTion. —The nucleus of the museum 
collection of fossil plants is the material deposited by Columbia 
University with the Garden under an agreement dated May 3, 
1901, in which year it was transferred from the University to 
the museum building. It consists almost entirely of collections 
gathered together during a period of some forty years by the late 
r. John Strong Newberry, formerly professor of geology and 
paleontology at Columbia. 
The number of specimens in the collection at the time when 
the transfer was effected was roughly estimated at about 8,0co. 
Subsequent work, however, in the arrangement of the museum, 
clearly indicated that this estimate was too low. It also did not 
include a large number of specimens contained in several bexes 
which had apparently never been opened. These have recently 
been unpacked and the specimens arranged with the others in 
their proper sequence — a piece of work which was impossible of 
accomplishment until this year, when the six new cases provided 
for the purpose became available. A somewhat hasty enumera- 
tion now indicates that at least 2,000 specimens from this source 
should be added to the original estimate and that the Columbia 
University collection may be conservatively credited with not less 
than 10,000 specimens. 
The scientific value of this collection in its entirety, and the 
historical interest which attaches to a large part of it, cannot be 
adequately described or discussed within the limited scope of 
this article; but brief references to the more important facts in 
connection with certain of the material may serve to at least in- 
dicate what the collection as a whole represents. 
Among the most interesting specimens, from the historical 
standpoint, are those collected by Dr. Newberry about 1850, 
upon which he based his earliest paleobotanical contribution, 
“ Fossil Plants from the Ohio Coal Basin.” This paper was read 
before the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science in 1853, and 
may be found in the Proceedings, pp. 26-53. This same paper, 
with additions, was also published as a series of articles, sparsely 
