REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



to the District of Columbia, bequeathed to the Institution by the late 

 Mr. W. Hallett Phillips. 



An ancient bronze ewer was received as a gift from Chang Yen Hoon, 

 special ambassador from China to the United States. 



Stereotype plates. — In the basement of the Institution building are 

 stored the stereotype plates of most of the Smithsonian publications. 

 These plates and engravers' blocks of illustrations are cheerfully placed 

 at the disposal of publishers for supplementing or illustrating scientific 

 works privately issued. The series of Miscellaneous Collections and 

 Contributions to Knowledge are no longer stereotyped, but the regular 

 edition has been increased, and in the case of works that are likely to 

 be in more than ordinary demand extra copies are printed. 



Smithson tablet. — A duplicate of the Smithson tablet was sent to 

 Pembroke College, Oxford, the college from which Smithson was grad- 

 uated. The two tablets sent to Genoa have been set in position, one 

 of them at Smithson's tomb and the other in the English Church. 

 During the last few years I have succeeded in getting some new infor- 

 mation concerning the personal history of Mr. Smithson, and I have 

 recently secured for the archives of the Institution a photographic 

 copy of his will. 



Tropical botanical laboratory. — The botanists of the United States in 

 1897 determined to establish a botanical laboratory in the American 

 tropics, and a commission having been appointed to select a suitable 

 site, the Institution extended all possible courtesies to the commission 

 by presenting the plans of the project to the Department of State, 

 through which necessary international arrangements were made to 

 insure proper reception of the commission by the Governments of 

 Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. The commission con- 

 sisted of Prof. Douglas Campbell, of Leland Stanford University; 

 Prof. J. M. Coulton, of the University of Chicago; Prof. W. G. Farlow, 

 of Harvard University, and Prof. D. T. MacDougall, of the University 

 of Minnesota. 



NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The temporary appointment of Mr. Charles D. Walcott as acting 

 assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of the 

 National Museum, following the death of Dr. Goode, was ratified by 

 the Board of Eegents on January 27, 1897. Mr. Walcott has continued 

 to act in this capacity through the fiscal year covered by this report, 

 and I take special pleasure in repeating my acknowledgment of the 

 value and efficiency of the services rendered by him. With a corre- 

 sponding regret I am obliged to announce that, owing to his exacting 

 duties as director of the United States Geological Survey, he has found 

 it necessary to terminate his official charge of the Museum with the 

 close of the fiscal year 1897-98, thus closing a relationship equally 

 satisfactory on its official and on its personal side. The Museum 



