226 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



separate^ as to species in the course of Mr. Benedict's studies of that 

 group. The large collection of samples from the ocean-bottom, com- 

 prising those obtained by the Fish Commission and by other govern- 

 ment surveys, has been overhauled and catalogued, and the packages 

 containing them have been labeled on the outside for convenience of 

 reference. 



Mr. Benedict has returned to the Museum several hundred vials of 

 annelids which were referred to him several years ago for study, and 

 also a large series of microscopic preparations of the appendages of the 

 same species. Much time has been spent in making up the several 

 special sets of duplicates for distribution which are described below. 



The amount of cataloguing done during the year is explained in the 

 following table: 



Group. 



Crustaceans 



Worms 



Bryozoans and Ascidians 



Echinoderms and Coeleuterates . 

 Sponges and Protozoals 



Total 



Entries to Entries to 

 June 30, 1S89. June 30, 1890. 



14, 385 

 4,728 

 2,778 



16, 885 

 0,056 



14, 934 

 4,810 

 2,844 



17, 459 

 6,287 



No. of en- 

 tries made 

 during year. 



549 



82 



66 



574 



231 



During the past year the curator has identified the shore and shallow- 

 water echini collected by the steamer Albatross on the west coast of 

 North America in 1888 and 1889, and a type series of the same has been 

 deposited in the Museum. The deep-water echini from the same 

 source have been referred to Mr. Alexander Agassiz, of Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. The curator has also begun the classification of the 

 star- fishes from the North Pacific Ocean, making use of the large col- 

 lection that has gradually accumulated in the Museum, together with 

 that recently obtained by the steamer Albatross. 



The assistant curator, Mr. Benedict, has paid most attention to 

 the brachyuran and anomouran crustaceans, with which this depart- 

 ment is well supplied, having completed the determinations in several 

 groups belonging to the Atlantic coast, and made considerable progress 

 with those from the North Pacific Ocean. The collection from the latter 

 region is especially rich in the number of specimens and species which 

 it contains, the field being a comparatively new one, brought into prom- 

 inence by the recent investigations of the steamer Albatross. Reports 

 upon these studies are in course of preparation. Mr. Benedict has also 

 reported upon the crustaceans collected by the United States Eclipse 

 Expedition to West Africa, comprising 18 species of brachyurans, 4 of 

 anoinourans, 4 of macrurans, 3 of isopods, and 1 of branchiopods, and 

 has done some work upon the Alaskan annelids obtained by Mr. Dall 

 and the Fish Commission. 



