No. 4SO.] CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER. 



fessor Hall says : " We are indebted to Mr. Charles P:. Beecher 

 for the preparation of the synopsis of the genera and sub-genera 

 described and illustrated in this volume ; and also for the expla- 

 nation of plates, with reference to the pages of the volume and 

 the localities of the species." Beecher also assisted Professor 

 Hall in the publication of other works as seen by the texts dur- 

 ing his Albany life. 



This extensive experience in pure systematic work laid the 

 broadest foundation for Beecher's later develo])mental and philo- 

 sophical studies, an experience that is markedly lacking or en- 

 tirely left out in many who enter into biological problems. It is 

 the expressed opinion of the present Palaeontologist of New York 

 State that the influence of Beecher on the palaeontology of the 

 State was for the best, and that during his stay of ten years he 

 elevated the standard greatly. 



In holidays at Albany he made extensive collections of 

 Unionidae and other living molluscs in that vicinity. This col- 

 lection, with the large collections of Recent Mollusca that he 

 gathered at Warren, Pennsylvania, also Michigan, and other local- 

 ities, previous to going to Albany, he presented to the New 

 York State Museum in 1886 and 1887. According to Mr. Wm. 

 B. Marshair this collection included some twenty thousand 

 specimens and as many more which were considered duplicates, 

 and is almost entirely made up of land and fresh-water shells of 

 the United States, largely collected by Beecher himself. As 

 shown by collating two of Marshall's published papers,^,^ there 

 are in the Beecher collection at least one hundred and twenty- 

 one species of land and fresh-water Mollusca, mostly from New 

 York and Pennsylvania. One hundred and two localities are 

 represented, seventy of which are in New York State, the others 

 being in various parts of the United States. 



Of the species some forty-three belonged to the Unionidae, a 



