wied, in Germany, and of a selection from the Ver- 

 reaux and Vedray collections in Paris, a full and in- 

 teresting report of which is hereto annexed. 



These valuable collections having been acquired, a 

 letter was addressed to the Commissioners of the Cen- 

 tral Park, expressing a desire to know if they would 

 receive them on deposit within the Park, and suggest- 

 ing the conditions on which the Trustees would like to 

 deposit them. A reply was received accepting them 

 on the terms proposed, and accommodations for their 

 exhibition are being rapidly completed in the two 

 upper stories of the Arsenal Building. 



In addition to these purchases, valuable donations 

 have been received. The State of New York, by an 

 act of Legislature, has offered a series of all dupli- 

 cates it may acquire ; Baron R. Osten Sacken has pre- 

 sented to the Museum more than four thousand speci- 

 mens of beetles, and insects of other orders ; Mr. 

 Coleman T. Robinson more than ten thousand speci- 

 mens of Lepidoptera, representing three thousand spe- 

 cies ; and Mr. A. L. Rawson has presented a collection 

 illustrating the geology of Palestine and Sinai. Gen. 

 Charles W. le Gendre, the American Consul at Amoy,' 

 China, has forwarded an invoice of seven boxes of 

 minerals, woods,, etc., the first response to a circular 

 kindly issued and forwarded by the State Department 

 of the United States to all our ministers and consuls in 

 foreign countries. Also, Mr. Lyell T. Adams, U. S. Con- 

 sul at Malta, has offered to send a complete collection 

 of specimens from that interesting locality. A similar 

 circular was forwarded by the Navy Department to 

 all its officers On foreign stations, and correspondence 



