State Museum of Natural History. 11 



glomerate and Clinton group, near Ilion, N. Y. These will be useful 

 in the Museum exchanges. 



Two boxes of fossils and several large blocks of coralline limestone 

 were obtained from Schoharie, and will afford valuable material for 

 translucent sections of corals. 



The additions to the various departments of the Museum, during the 

 year 1884, will be found recorded in detail in the lists appended. 



In the Botanical department, 151 species of plants have been received 

 from twenty-three contributors. The State Botanist has collected 192 

 species of plants, of which 116 are new to the herbarium. 



The Zoological collections have received specimens from four con- 

 tributors. The principal addition is a collection of sixteen species of 

 Achatinella, from Dr. W. D. Hartman, of West Chester, Pennsylvania. 



The collections in Geology and Palaeontology have received by dona- 

 tion sixteen specimens from six contributors, and by collection five 

 boxes of fossils from Warren county, Pennsylvania ; one box of fossils 

 from Troy, N. Y., two boxes of Oneida conglomerate, Clinton iron ore 

 and Clinton gray sandstone from Ilion, N. Y., two boxes of fossil corals 

 from the coralline limestone of Schoharie, one box of fossils from Cort- 

 land, and nineteen large blocks of stone representing the Utica slate, 

 Hudson river group, Tentaculite limestone, and Oriskany sandstone. 

 Eleven specimens have been added by purchase, among which are seven 

 very large and perfect examples of fossil reticulate sponges, from the 

 Chemung group of Steuben county. 



By donation and exchange, the library has received eighty-three books 

 and pamphlets ; ten volumes have been added by purchase. 



The preparation for working and storage rooms in the upper story of 

 the State Hall is so far advanced that some of the rooms may be occu- 

 pied at once, and with the concurrence of the Secretary of. the Board of 

 Regents, I have already commenced to remove some of the valuable col- 

 lections from the present Museum building to these rooms, which offer 

 almost perfect security against fire. In this connection, and in regard 

 to other collections of especial value now remaining in the present 

 Museum building, I beg leave to call your attention to a recommenda- 

 tion made in my last report * regarding the removal of such as these 

 from the present unsafe Museum building to the State Hall, where they 

 may be temporarily arranged or otherwise provided for. Should this 

 proposition meet the approval of the Trustees, I would ask for authority 

 to transfer the same as early as practicable. 



Should it be necessary to remove some of the material now on public 

 exhibition in the cases, I would suggest that other specimens be sub- 

 stituted from the duplicate collections. Nearly all the material which 

 * Thirty-seventh Report on the State Museum of Natural History, page 23. 



