REPORT OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. 63 



The most important accessions to tliis department m L884 were pre* 

 seated by Henry Hemphill, the United states Signal Office, Dr. Leon- 

 balrd Stejneger, Rev. B. Lehnert, l>r. William II. Jones, r. s. N., and 

 R. Ellsworth Call. 



(9) Prjiartmait of Insects. 



Prof. 0. V. Kiley lias, as in previous years, voluntarily assumed the 



care of the entomological materia] which has come in, and his own 



valuable and constantly-increasing collection remains a deposit in the 

 Museum. A collection of insects injurious to forest trees, mounted in 

 Museum cases, in the style which it is proposed by Professor Riley to 

 adopt in the arrangement of our exhibition series when the opportunity 

 comes, was sent to the International Forestry Exhibition in Edinburgh 

 and received a gold medal. Fifty-five accession lots were received 

 during the year, the most valuable being the collection made by L. M. 

 Turner, at Ungava Hay, 11. B. T. 



There were 55 accessions to this department during the year, of which 

 the collections made by Mr. Lucien M. Turner is perhaps the most val- 

 uable. 



The curator was called upon by the Department of Agriculture to pre- 

 pare an exhibit for the New Orleans Exposition, and it was agreed that 

 upon the return of this exhibit to Washington it should be incorporated 

 with the Museum collections. It is hoped that the financial condition 

 of the Museum will soon warrant the placing of this very important and 

 loug-neglected department upon a footing of equality with the others. 



(h) Department of Marine Invertebrates.* 



In the Department of Marine Invertebrates, exclusive of the mollusca, 

 under the charge of Mr. Kathbuu, 240 cases or specimens, enumerated 

 in 72 accessions, have been added during the year. Of these, the most 

 important have been received from the United States Fish Commission, 

 from Dr. Edward Palmer, a collector employed in the interest of the 

 New Orleans Exhibition, and from various naval sources. The Fish 

 Commission collections are mainly illustrative of the recent deep-sea 

 explorations of the steamer Albatross, off the eastern coast of the United 

 States, and in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and contain many 

 new additions to science, which have been worked up only in part. They 7 

 fill several thousand jars and vials. The collection of Dr. Palmer was 

 made for the purpose of representing, at the World's Fair in New 

 Orleans, the varied animal resources of the coral reef and sponge re- 

 gions of southern aud western Florida. It consists for the most part 

 of finely prepared specimens of commercial and other sponges, orna- 

 mental corals, and the larger species of crustaceans aud mollusks used 

 as food, and required G5 large shipping cases to transport it to Wash- 

 ington. Supplemental to this is an extensive collection made by Mr. 

 Henry Hemphill on the western coast of Florida. 



* Exclusive of the mollusca. 



