Ralph Dupuy Lacoc. — Haydcn. 337 
money and study where they might some day be relegated to 
the shades and be forgotten. 
Wisely, he determined to give his immense collection to the 
United States National Museum at Washington where it 
would do the greatest good to the greatest number. Permit 
me to quote the account of this unsurpassed collection publifched 
in the annual report of the National Museum : In the report of 
1892. Mr. Lester F. Ward, honorary curator of this depart- 
ment, speaks thus : 
"No gift of greater importance to the department of fossil plants 
has ever been made than that by Mr. R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Pa., 
under the terms of whiich this great collection of fossil plants is tc be 
permanently deposited in the National Museum. The value of this col- 
lection, one of world-wide reputation, is far greater than that ot the 
entire amount of the collections in the department prior to the date of 
its gift. The task of procuring fossil plants from the older formations 
for use in naleontological and biological research has been prosecuted 
for nearly twenty years by its donor whose liberal means and scientific 
and practical niining knowledge, as well as his favorable location in the 
heart of the northern arthracite coal field have enabled him to bring 
together an invaluable body of material, of which professor Lesqucjeux 
remarked in one of his last publications, 1886:" 
" 'Mir. R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, has procured, from almost all the 
localities whe^e coal is worked in the United States, an immense 
amount of specimens far beyond any seen even in the largest museums 
of Europe.' " 
"Since the above quotation was written Mr. Lacoe has continued 
his work, having several collectors in his employ in the various states 
and the Acadia provinces, a portion of the material collected having 
been examined by professor Lesquereux. Besides gathering this materi- 
al in the field he has also purchased a number of private collections, 
containing may type specimens, so that it is perhaps safe to say that 
nearly one-half of the types of the American Carboniferous flora now lie 
within the Lacoe collection. In fact, there are few outstanding Amer- 
ican types except those resting in several state geological museums. 
■'But even the deficiency in the balance of originals has largely 
been compensated for by the collection of duplicates from the type lo- 
calities, and these, like all other collections made prior to 1889, were ex- 
amined and labelled by the original author of nine-tenths of the Pideo- 
zoic species described from the United States, Leo Lesquereux. 
"How prominent a part this material has taken in both the bio- 
logical and economic applications may be recognized at a glance in the 
three volumes of the 'Coal Flora,' report P, Pennsylvania Geological 
Survey, 1878-1884. 
"It will at once be seen that the occasion of this invaluable wealth 
of material will necessarily make this institution, as a repository of the 
