234 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



ariuin, for which cards had to be written. In the matter of practical 

 working, this card-catalogue is found to be of great value, since by 

 consulting it the presence or absence of any species may be at once 

 determined without the necessity of going to the cases. This is be- 

 lieved to be the only large herbarium in this country in which this 

 system has been adopted, and the labor of keeping it up will be very 

 slight compared with what it would be to prepare such a catalogue after 

 the accumulation of a great mass of material. No species is considered 

 as belonging to the collection until its card has first been written and 

 entered. Besides convenience of consultation, this system possesses 

 another p^int of advantage in that it furnishes the source of a record, 

 easily accessible, of the exact status and magnitude of the collections, a 

 matter which is open to much speculation when no such data are at 

 hand. 



The poisoning of specimens newly received has occupied much time. 

 About 5,000 specimens have been permanently protected from the rav- 

 ages of insects. A complete immersion of the specimen in a saturated 

 alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate has been found most effica- 

 cious. 



The work which has required the largest amount of time has been 

 the selection of material for mounting. Instead of mounting indiscrimi- 

 nately the mass of duplicate material which constantly comes to a col- 

 lection of this character, a carotid comparison is always made in order 

 to be certain that the specimens will actually add to the ones already 

 in hand ; either a different phase of (he plant or a new and interesting 

 locality. In this manner pure duplication is checked and the growth 

 of the herbarium made to accommodate itself, as nearly as possible, to 

 the present somewhat restricted space. As rapidly as the specimens 

 selected can be mounted they are added in their systematic place to the 

 herbarium, so that no large amount of this new material is allowed to 

 accumulate and remain inaccessible. 



In compliance with your circular issued March 1, 18S3, much work 

 has been done towards perfecting a list of the cultivated plants of the 

 District of Columbia. Most of the time of Mr. A. L. Schott, when not 

 engaged in caring for the living plants in the Museum, has been spent 

 in making extensive collections about the city. Several thousand spec- 

 imens are the result of this labor. These have all been poisoned and 

 await final identification, which we hope soon to have time to undertake. 

 A slip catalogue of those already determined has been commenced and 

 now contains about 1,800 slips. As the estimated number of cultivated 

 species is about 4,000, much work yet remains to be done. 



In regard to the exhibition and study series nothing has as yet been 

 attempted, although a large mass of material, principally woods, fruits, 

 fruit vessels, etc., has accumulated. It is to be hoped that at no dis- 

 tant day an exhibition of this character may be undertaken, since from 

 an educational point of view it would undoubtedly be of great value. 

 When once begun its growth will be rapid, since by seeing unique vege- 



