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Field  Columbian  Museum — Reports,  Vol.  i. 
be  reconstructed.     From  the  osteological  material  of   the  A.ncon 
exploration  it  is  possible  to  make  a  full  and  complete  investigation  of 
the  physical  characteristics,  so  far  as  the  skeleton  is  concerned,  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of   this  Necropolis.     The  most  important 
Herbarium  accessions  to  the  Botanical  Department  this  year,  are  the 
plants  of  the  Gaumer  collection  purchased  by  the  Museum,  and  the 
Mexican  plants  donated  by  Mr.  Ryerson.    The  former  are  particularly 
valuable,  as  they  maintain  this  special  field  for  the  Museum,  and 
yield  a  large  percentage  of  species  entirely  new  to  science.  Mrs. 
Snyder  has  continued  her  enthusiastic  interest  in  the  welfare  of  this 
Department  during  the  past  year  by  additional  contributions  of 
plants  collected  by  herself  in  the  Californian  region.     Mr.  Nuttall, 
of  West  Virginia,  who  co-operated  with  the  Botanical  Department  in 
the  preparation  of  its  publication  on  the  Flora  of  West  Virginia,  has 
exhibited  his    interest    in    the   work  of   the  Museum  by  sending 
specimens  illustrating  the  flora  of  that  state.     Special  significance 
should  also  be  attached  to  the  valuable  material  collected  by  the 
Curator  as  a  beginning  of  the  contemplated  North  American  Forestry 
Collection.     In  this  work  a  good  start  has  been  made,  and  much 
work  outlined  for  the  next  collecting  season.     The  Department 
of  Geology  has  obtained   a  large  collection  of  fossils  illustrating 
the  fauna  of  the  Chicago  beds  during  the  Niagara  period.  This 
includes  over  five  hundred    specimens  representing   at   least  one 
hundred  distinct  species,  many  of  them  rare,  and  two  as  yet  unde- 
scribed.     These  were  gathered  during  a  series  of  years  by  the  late 
Dr.  Kennicott,   and  include  many  of  the  best  specimens  so  far 
obtained  from  the  Bridgeport  and  Hawthorne  localities.  Other 
important  accessions  to  the  paleontological  collection  are  a  series  of 
about  sixty  species  of  tertiary  leaves  from  the  Denver  beds  of  South 
Table  Mountain  and  Golden,  Colorado;  twenty  species  of  Devonian 
plants  from  the  Fern  Ledges  of  St.  John,  N.  B.;  one  hundred  speci- 
mens of  the  Cretaceous  fossils  of  Texas  representing  twenty  distinct 
species;  and  a  Placenticeras  from  Montana,  nearly  two  feet  in  diam- 
eter, with  sutures  beautifully  preserved.    A  relief  map  of  France, 
four  feet  in  diameter,  a  relief  map  of  Northwestern  Illinois  and  a 
series  of  seven  relief  maps  of  the  continents  and  the  world,  are 
important  additions  to  the  geographic  material  already  exhibited. 
To  the  mineral  collection  have  been  added  a  number  of  the  rarer 
minerals  of  Mexico,  such  as  Guanajuatite,  Livingstonite,  Bustanite, 
etc.,  obtained  by  exchange  with  the   Mexican  National  School  of 
Engineering,  and  some  showy  specimens  of  the  better  known  minerals 
collected  by  the  Curator  of  Geology.     A  series  of  remarkable  Joplin, 
