REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1898 r39 



The latter part of January was spent in the revision of the 

 Cretaceous fossils from Great Britain. After this was completed 

 the Jurassic fossils were relabeled and arranged, and, as this division 

 was so large and the number of species so great, nearly the entire 

 month of February was spent in this task. A recently purchased 

 collection of Tertiary shells from a deep well boring at Galveston 

 Tex., was put in glass-covered boxes, which were filled with black 

 cotton for a background. This method of mounting was necessary 

 on account of the small size of the shells, which were too minute 

 to be seen distinctly in any other way. 



The work of relabeling the European collection was continued 

 during March and completed as far as the Upper Carboniferous or 

 coal measures. A large number of plants from the coal fields of 

 England were unlabeled, and many of these were determined and 

 labeled. The authority for this work was the Catalogue of the 

 paleozoic plants in the department of geology and paleontology^ 

 British museum.^ by Robert Kidston, a work which appeared in 

 188G. In the revision of the British collection of fossils, the im- 

 portant memoirs published by the Paleontographical society made 

 the task comparatively simple. Many other reports were consulted, 

 such as Agassiz's Poissons fossiles, Phillips's Geology of York- 

 shire^ Brogniart's Uistoire de vegetahles fossiles^ Lesquereux's Coal 

 flora of the Carboniferous formation in Pennsylvania^ Fontaine 

 and White, Permian or Upper Carhoniferous flora, and mono- 

 graphs by English specialists on the brachiopods, echinoderms and 

 mollusca. 



It is believed that the collections, as far as studied, relabeled and 

 remounted, are thoroughly up to date, and will not require at any 

 future time any farther study. The different divisions of the 

 formations have been kept separate, and the proper stage name 

 placed at the head of each division in large black letters. The 

 labels are all lettered in waterproof india ink on pearl colored card 

 labels, and are a great improvement over the former finely written 

 labels, all becoming indistinct and fading with age. This alone is 

 worth a good deal, and the names of the specimens can now be read 

 at a glance at some distance away. 



I wish to thank the director, Dr F. J. H. Merrill, for his kind 

 assistance and his help in securing everything needful for my work, 



