4 



Mr. Garman, Professor Hamlin, Mr. Brewster, Professor Hyatt, 

 and Dr. Fewkes, have all given assistance to visitors in their 

 respective Departments. 



The unexpected demand for instruction is in excess of our 

 accommodation, and I regret to say that we are again compelled, 

 for want of Laboratory space, to occupy rooms in the older sec- 

 tions of the Museum intended for a very different purpose. This 

 is unfortunate, as any such temporary arrangements must be 

 wasteful. Besides, some of the courses of instruction have on 

 this account been removed from their natural connection with the 

 Library and apparatus to other buildings. It will be absolutely 

 essential, in order to maintain the unity of organization on which 

 so much care and money have been expended, to provide addi- 

 tional quarters for the accommodation of the increasing number of 

 students, and the natural demands for expansion in the special- 

 ties of each Department. At the present moment an additional 

 section of the Museum would barely meet our requirements. 



Considerable attention has been paid to the improvement of the 

 Laboratories, and to the increase of their equipment. 



At the Marine Laboratory at Newport, Dr. Fewkes has had the 

 charge of two students. He has continued his work on the de- 

 velopment of Echinoderms, and I have spent some time on the 

 Embryology of Bony Fishes. 



As usual, a large amount of material has been sent to various 

 institutions and individuals for study. I may mention specially 

 the Zoological Society of London, the Smithsonian, the Peabody 

 Academy, Messrs. Ridgway, Ayers, Drs. Bauer, Meriam, Murray, 

 Spengel, Royer, Wilder, and Professors Allen, Lacaze-Duthiers, 

 and Marsh. 



Professor Lesquereux, to whom had been sent our extensive 

 material of Fossil Plants from the Dakota group, has returned 

 the specimens, as well as a series of specimens from the Laramie 

 group and a number of carboniferous plants. The cretaceous 

 specimens, as he says, have been of the greatest use to him, and 

 the new material will be incorporated in a volume on fossil plants 

 which he is preparing for publication by the Geological Survey of 

 the United States. The carboniferous species have been published 

 in his Flora of the Carboniferous Period of the United States. 



Excellent progress has been made during the past year with the 

 Reports on the " Blake " collection. 



