42 Report of the President 



realize on seeing the completed group that the largest single 

 item in time — and cost — has been the reproduction of the 

 barnacle-covered rocks, which has called for the making and 

 placing of thousands of barnacles that could be made only a 

 few at a time. Such things as these are among the kinds of 

 work that are included in "the submerged seven-eighths" 

 referred to elsewhere. Next to these come the rockweed that 

 is to hang in masses below the barnacles and which cannot be 

 reproduced quickly and accurately. 



These represent only the principal items of completed 

 work, but a large amount has been done for groups and 

 exhibits still in the future. 



The output of the printing office amounted to more than 



600,000 impressions, a record which speaks well for all con- 



„ . . . cerned. The more important items are 80,000 



Fruiting and 



Labeling folders, for distribution to hotels and other public 



places, 55,000 plates for the Journal, 13,000 



booklets about the lecture courses and a new edition of Our 



Common Butterflies. 



The important work of labeling has made good progress 



during the year, even better than might be inferred from the 



number of labels printed, for some of these afford as much 



information as several pages in a book and are infinitely more 



difficult to prepare. It is comparatively easy to set down 



information when the writer is not hampered by conditions of 



space, but when that same information is to be compressed 



into the circumscribed area of a label, the problem becomes 



difficult. Particular attention is called to such labels as that 



on the Calendar Stone in the Mexican Hall, to the "Index 



Labels " at the entrances to the Indian Halls, and to the 



descriptive labels on the cases in these same halls. As a 



matter of justice it should also be said that the present labels 



on many of the casts of Mexican antiquities were not prepared 



by members of the Museum staff and are regarded as 



" temporary," a word, when used in connection with museums, 



meaning anywhere from three to ten years. The labels for 



the Synoptic Series of Mammals would make a text-book of 



no inconsiderable size, and while in this particular case the 



