Annual Report.] 324 [May 4, 



forty feet in circumference. Professor Paul Reinsch has sent 

 quite a series of European plants, principally mosses, lichens 

 and algae ; and a complete set of the mosses of North Amer- 

 ica, comprising over five hundred specimens, has been pur- 

 chased from Professor Leo Lesquereux. The whole herba- 

 rium should be carefully examined and many specimens 

 poisoned. The acting Curator recommends the erection of 

 new cases in a gallery, in which dried mounted specimens, 

 illustrative of the larger divisions of plants or possessing an 

 economic value, could be exposed to view. The principal 

 donors to the collection, in addition to those already men- 

 tioned, have been Messrs. G. B. Emerson, R. C. Greenleaf, 

 J. M. Barnard, C. J. Sprague, J. F. Hunnewell, G. W. Arm- 

 strong and W. T. Brigham. 



No further progress has been made in labelling the PalaBon- 

 tological collection ; before this is done, the collection needs 

 a thorough revision, requiring an amount of consecutive time 

 which the Curator has not been able to devote to it ; indeed 

 he has only retained the office because no one of requisite 

 knowledge could be found to replace him. The only impor- 

 tant addition consists of a few specimens of Devonian Insects 

 from New Brunswick — the oldest known remains of this 

 group in the world, — presented by the Natural History So- 

 ciety of St. John. 



The Department of Geology has been partially rearranged 

 and labelled; no additions of any consequence have been 

 made. 



The Curator of Mineralogy has completed the entire re- 

 arrangement and relabelling of the mineralogical cabinet ; this 

 has been an arduous task, much time having been required 

 to verify the correctness of the labels supplanted. The col- 

 lection is now in perfect order, and the specimens number 

 about twenty eight hundred. There is a great deficiency in 



