Dbckmbek 14, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



919 



ways, one of the most important collections 

 in the United States. It represents the life- 

 long work of one of onr most experienced 

 and most assiduous collectors. Its founda- 

 tion dates back nearly half a century, and 

 up to within the past few years Mr. XJlke 

 spared no effort to increase it by collecting 

 or by exchanging. In the early days of the 

 great transcontinental surveys, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution had not begun to make 

 collections of insects, and as a result much 

 of the material picked up by the naturalists 

 connected with these surveys fell into Mr. 

 Ulke's hands. He was never a publishing 

 entomologist, and the writer believes that 

 only one published paper bears his name. 

 That was a report on the beetles collected 

 by one of the Wheeler survey expeditions. 

 The collection numbers perhaps 125,000 

 specimens, and its large number of species — 

 more than 11,000 — as well as the large se- 

 ries of specimens representing each species, 

 rendered this collection for many years 

 preeminent among other collections. It is, 

 in fact, only within the past 15 or 20 years, 

 when careful collecting methods have be- 

 come more generally adopted and when 

 railroads have made all parts of the country 

 more accessible, that other large private 

 collections have been formed. Ulke early 

 appreciated the importance of large series, 

 and at a time when other collectors were 

 gathering beetles as a boy collects postage 

 stamps, one or two specimens repi'esenting 

 a species, Ulke had his long rows of speci- 

 mens indicating variation within specific 

 limit and variation due to geographic and 

 other environmental dissimilarities. 



A distinguishing feature of the collection 

 is the uniformly perfect preservation of the 

 specimens as well as the exquisite and 

 painstaking care with which even the most 

 delicate specimens are prepared and thus 

 rendered available for study. In this re- 

 spect the collection is still unapproached by 

 any other. 



How much the progress of North Ameri- 

 can coleopterology is indebted to this col- 

 lection can readily be seen from the writings 

 of systematists, and in fact there is not a 

 single worker in this field who has not 

 drawn material from the Ulke collection. 

 The liberality with which Mr. Ulke has al- 

 ways placed his collection at the disposal 

 of students and workers is well known and 

 has been acknowledged in print over and 

 over again. The collection was employed 

 by Le Conte and by Horn in the preparation 

 of their various monographs and revisions, 

 and has been similarly used by Dietz, Hay- 

 ward, Matthews and others. That the 

 collection has thereby been increased in 

 scientific value goes without saying and 

 besides a large number of actual types the 

 collection contains several thousand speci- 

 mens which are cotypical in value. 



The Carnegie Museum, at Pittsburgh, 

 already contains the collection of Coleoptera 

 of the late Dr. John Hamilton, and it is 

 sincerely to be congratulated upon this last 

 important addition to its entomological 

 treasures. This is the first time, I believe, 

 that a private collection made in our East- 

 ern States finds its way west of the Alle- 

 gheny Mountains, and while the writer 

 sincerely regrets that the collection could 

 not remain in Washington as the property 

 of the U. S. ISTational Museum, he feels con- 

 solation in the firm conviction that it will 

 be well cared for at Pittsburgh, at least so 

 long as Dr. Holland remains Director of 

 the Carnegie Museum (and may that be for 

 many years to come I), and will continue to 

 to be a source of information and study for 

 the younger generation of coleopterists. 



The Museum also contains, as is well 

 known, the superb collection of Lepidop- 

 tera brought together by Dr. Holland, 

 and this last collectiou cannot fail to place 

 the Carnegie Museum in a group of four 

 public institutions which contain collections 

 of insects of great extent and value and 



