State Museum oe Natural History. 11 



ligent public appreciate this state of affairs, and see the unfortunate 

 influence on the results of the Museum work. 



The additions to the Museum collections during the year 1882 will 

 be found recorded in detail in the lists appended. 



In the Botanical Department there have been nineteen contributors 

 of an aggregate of 285 species. 



hi the Zoological Department there have been added to the arranged 

 collections specimens from six sources. 



The whale skeleton, purchased nearly two years since, has been in 

 the custody of Professor Ward, of Rochester, for maceration and prepa- 

 ration. We had expected to have it delivered at the Museum about 

 the end of this year, but I am just now informed that it will not be 

 ready before March next. 



The Museum Library has received the addition- of 103 books and 

 pamphlets by donation, and thirty publications by purchase and ex- 

 change. 



To the collections in mineralogy, geology and palaeontology, there 

 have been added by donations from eleven contributors 72 specimens, 

 besides the collections made by persons connected with the Museum, 

 which are for the most part, from necessity, packed in boxes. 



The Current Work of the Museum. 



The accompanying report of the Botanist, Mr. C. II. Peck, will give 

 an account of the work in his department, and the addition to the 

 herbarium of 142 species of plants, of which 68 are new to this collec- 

 tion. On the second floor of the Museum, a collection of fungi is 

 arranged for public inspection. 



The Unionidae and other fresh-water shells, with numerous sections 

 of the same, referred to in a former report as the work of Mr. Geo. B. 

 Simpson, has been in part arranged in cases, and the collection is in 

 progress toward completion. A collection of Unionidaa and other 

 fresh-water shells, made by Dr. D. N". DeTarr, assistant in the Museum 

 during the summer of 1881, has been arranged by him in cases pro- 

 vided for that purpose. 



A considerable part of the insect collection, which was made by Mr. 

 Lintner for the State Museum, has been placed for exhibition in one 

 of the large table-cases on the second floor. Although subject to de- 

 terioration from the influence of light, the Director has deemed it 

 proper to place some portion of this collection where it can be seen 

 by visitors to the Museum. 



In the Department of Osteology, Anatomical and Alcoholic Speci- 

 mens, and the preparation of translucent sections of fossils and min- 



