creditable to the Government and the Institution than it has ever yet been. Such a collection will tend to draw to itself numerous isolated collections, especially of anthropology, which, though they may be of much interest to the individuals possessing them, are of comparatively little value in the way of advancing a knowledge of the subject to which they pertain, and, in case of the death of the owners, are genererally dissipated and frequently lost to the world. The only way in which they can become of real importance is by making them part of a general collection, carefully preserved in some public institution, where they can be studied and compared with other specimens, and where, in the course of the increasing light of science, they may be made to reveal truths beyond present anticipation.

Herbarium.-An account of the transfer of the extensive collection of plants of the Institution to the care of the Department of Agriculture has been given in previous reports, but it is thought important to place on record a more detailed history of this collection than has yet been published, and I therefore present the following account of it from notes furnished by Dr. Torrey.

The Institution having accumulated a large number of botanical specimens collected in various parts of the world, most of them brought home by the Government exploring expeditions, others presented by authors of botanical works, travelers or special collectors, the offer was made by Professor John Torrey to arrange, without compensation, all these separate collections into one general herbarium. This offer was gladly accepted on the part of the Institution, and all the specimens on hand, and all that were subsequently received up to 1869, were transferred to him. When he commenced the task, the specimens, especially those collected by the Institution, were still in bundles as they were received, and all required to be poisoned to prevent their destruction by insects, which had already commenced their ravages. The plan adopted by Dr. Torrey for the arrangement of the plants was of the most approved character. Each species, often represented by sev eral specimens, and all the marked varieties, are fastened to a half sheet of strong white paper and labeled. All the species of a genus are laid on one or more whole sheets of thicker tinted paper, on the lower lefthand corner of which the generic name is written. The genera are arranged according to the natural system, following for the most part the order of De Candolle. A very large proportion of the specimens are authentically named by the authors who have described them; and as they are the type-specimens or originals of several important works are invaluable for reference. Some of the more valuable portions of the Smithsonian herbarium are the following:

1. The plants collected by the exploring expedition under the command of Admiral Wilkes, during the years 1838 to 1842. Many countries were visited in this voyage round the world, and an extensive herbarium

brought home. The botanists of the expedition were Mr. William Rich, Dr. Charles Pickering, and Mr. W. I. D. Brackenridge. To the lastnamed gentleman was assigned the description of the ferns, his report on which was printed by order of Congress in a handsome quarto volume, with a folio atlas, containing beautifully engraved figures of the new or little-known species. After a very few copies of this work were distributed, the remainder of the edition was destroyed by fire while in the hands of the binder. The copper-plates, however, are still in the custody of the Library Committee of Congress, and it would cost but little to print a new edition of a work so much desired by a large number of botanists. The flowering plants, with the exception of those collected in California and Oregon, were referred to Dr. Torrey; others were partially studied by Mr. Rich, and then committed to Professor Asa Gray for a more thorough investigation. Of this portion of the collection only one quarto volume of text, and a large folio volume of illustrations, have thus far been published by Congress. For a number of years the publication of the works relating to the exploring expedition was in charge of the Joint Library Committee of Congress and Admiral Wilkes, but it was impossible to procure appropriations to defray the large expense of the undertaking. At length all the materials were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, provided it would publish for distribution an edition of the whole. The limited income of the Smithsonian fund did not permit the Institution to embark in so formidable an undertaking, and plates, manuscripts, and printed matter are still in possession of the Committee on the Library of Congress.

Professor Gray is ready to go on with his work as soon as provision. is made for its publication. Dr. Torrey's report has been long since completed, and the illustrations drawn, engraved, and even printed. At this late day, however, the report would require revision; indeed, so many new and rare species described in it have since been found and described by other botanists, that it may be sufficient to publish a very brief report, accompanied by the plates alluded to above. The Mosses were described and beautifully illustrated by W. S. Sullivant, esq., of Columbus, Ohio. The text in quarto of his valuable report is also printed, but not published. He has, however, at his own expense, printed for private distribution a beautiful edition of it in folio. The Algæ were committed to Professor J. W. Bailey, of West Point, and Professor W. H. Harvey, of Trinity College, Dublin, whose report on these plants, with elaborate illustrations, is printed, and has been, for years, stored away in sheets awaiting to be bound up and published with Dr. Torrey's report. The same may be said of Professor Tuckerman's account of the Lichens, and of the reports by Rev. M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina, and Rev. Dr. Berkely, of England, on the Fungi.

2. The next most extensive and valuable portion of the herbarium is the collection of plants made during the North Pacific exploring expedition, under command of Commanders Ringgold and Rodgers, from 1853

to 1856, by Mr. Charles Wright, an accomplished botanist, who accompanied the Mexican boundary commissioners in their surveys, and who has also made extensive botanical explorations in Cuba. There has been no full report of the collections made on the North Pacific expedition, though many of the new species have been published by Dr. Gray. 3. The naturalists who accompanied most of the surveying parties which made explorations for the route of a Pacific Railroad collected large numbers of plants, many of which were new to the botanist, and have been described in the published reports of these explorations.

4. Collections made in the Mexican boundary survey by Dr. C. C. Parry, Dr. J. M. Bigelow, Mr. C. Wright, Professor George Thurber, and Mr. Arthur Schott, are among the most extensive and valuable portions of the herbarium. A full account of them, by Drs. Gray, Engelmann, and Torrey, is contained in General Emory's report. The Cactaceæ, and one or two smaller orders, were described by Dr. Engelmann; the Compositæ, Scrophulariaceæ, and one or two other orders, by Dr. Gray; and the ferns, with their allies, by Professor D. C. Eaton. The remaining Cryptogamia are not included in the report, but most of the new or rare ones have been published elsewhere. The grasses were to be described in a separate memoir by Professor Thurber.

5. Large additions have been made to the North American portion of the herbarium, chiefly from within the limits of the United States and Territories, by contributions from the following places: New England, by Mr. Oakes, Dr. Gray, Professor Tuckerman, S. T. Olney, esq., Professor D. C. Eaton, and others; New Jersey, by Mr. C. F. Austin, Professor Eaton, Dr. Torrey, and Dr. Knieskern; New York, Messrs. Austin, LeRoy, Clinton, Torrey, and many others; Pennsylvania, by Dr. Darlington, and Professor Thos. C. Porter; North Carolina, by Rev. Dr. Curtis; Florida, by Dr. Chapman, (type-specimens of his flora of the Southern States;) Alabama, by Professor Winchell; Kentucky, Dr. Short, and Mr. Sullivant; Texas and New Mexico, Messrs. Fendler, Ervendberg, and others, besides what the botanists collected in the Mexican boundary survey; Rocky Mountains, Dr. Parry, Captain Macomb, and Dr. Newberry; Oregon, Mr. Geo. Gibbs, and others; Nebraska, Dr. Hayden; Nevada, Mr. Stretch; California, Dr. H. M. Bolander, General Frémont, Miss Davies, Th. Bridges, Mr. E. Samuels, Dr. Torrey, and many others; Colorado, Dr. Anderson, Frémont, and others. Besides these principal sources of United States plants, very many specimens have been received from other places and persons, which we have not space to enumerate. From British America, especially the sub-arctic portions, Dr. Kennicott, and officers of the Hudson's Bay Company have furnished specimens. Of foreign plants, besides those collected in the two United States exploring expeditions already noticed, the herbarium contains valuable and large contributions from Japan, Mantchuria, China, etc., from Professors Reïgel and Maximovitch, of the Imperial Academy of Science of St. Petersburg, and the Imperial Botanic Garden:

A

large collection of Sandwich Island plants, (all type-specimens,) made by Mr. Horace Mann, lately deceased: A collection of plants from Mirador, Mexico, by Dr. Sartorius: Many specimens, with fleshy fruits in alcohol, collected on the Panama Railroad, by the late Dr. Sutton Hayes; others from the same region by Fendler, in 1850: Plants from Jamaica, especially ferns from Mr. Wilson; from Cuba, collected by Mr. Chas. Wright; Venezuela, many beautifully dried ferns by Fendler; from Texas and Northern Mexico, by Berlandier; Lower California, by Mr. Xantus; Brazil and Paraguay, by unknown collector. From Europe, there is an extensive collection of Hungarian plants from Mr. Arthur Schott, and of Illyrian plants from Professor Thomasini, besides many smaller collections from various parts of the continent. Dr. Torrey has contributed a large number of specimens from his own herbarium.

As to the disposition made of the duplicates of the collections, they have been sent in the name of the Smithsonian Institution to learned societies, botanic gardens, and individuals, whenever they could be disposed of for the advance of science. Full sets of duplicates were presented to the Royal Garden at Kew, near London, the botanic gardens of Paris and St. Petersburg, besides smaller portions to individuals, lyceums of natural history, and colleges.

This collection of plants has been transferred to the Agricultural Department, on the conditions set forth in the following documents, of which the originals are in the archives of the Institution and of the Agricultural Department:

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 1, 1868.

In order to the harmonious co-operation of the Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Agriculture in their respective provinces of advancing science, they enter into the following agreement relative to the disposition of specimens:

First, All the botanical specimens in possession of the Smithsonian Institution, about twenty thousand, and all that may hereafter be collected by it, shall be transferred to the Agricultural Department on the following terms:

1. That a competent botanist, approved by the Institution, shall be appointed to have charge of the collection.

2. That the collection shall, at all times, be accessible to the public for educational purposes, and to the Institution for scientific investigation, or for supplying any information in regard to plants that its correspondents may ask for.

3. That due credit be given to the Institution in the report of the Agricultural Department for the original deposit, and for such additions as may be made to it, from time to time, by the Institution.

Second. That the Agricultural Department shall transfer to the Smithsonian Institution any specimens it may now have, or may hereafter obtain, that are not necessary to illustrate agricultural economy; such as

those of ethnology and of various branches of natural history. Similar credit to be given in this case as is required in the former.

HORACE CAPRON,

Commissioner of Agriculture.

JOSEPH HENRY,

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

The following is an account of the more important additions which have been made to the collection in the Agricultural Department by the Institution since the transfer of the general herbarium in 1868:

1. A set of European plants, numbering about four hundred species, presented by Professor Paul Reintz, of Germany, in exchange, at his request, for specimens of American plants.

2. A second very extensive collection of plants from the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, in return for donations from the Institution. This present, like all of those we have received from the Imperial Academy, is of a most valuable character. It consists of eleven hundred species from Russia, Siberia, Western Europe, and Japan.

3. Another large collection is from the widow of the late Mr. James McMinn, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, principally of plants from the mountainous regions of Pennsylvania, but also comprising specimens from other parts of this country and different localities in Europe. Mr. McMinn was a civil engineer, and in the practice of his profession in surveying lines for railways and canals became interested in the variety of plants which were presented to his notice, and as a means of recreation, as well as of intellectual improvement, commenced the study of botany. It would appear from the examination of his herbarium, that he had entered into extensive correspondence with some of the principal botanists of this country and Europe, and had enriched his collection by exchanges. His herbarium contained about five thousand species, among which is an interesting series of plants from the Alps. The special thanks of the Institution are due to Mrs. McMinn for the judicious disposition she has made of the results of the labors of her lamented husband, which we trust will be preserved among the collections of the Government, as a permanent memorial of his devotion to science and of her enlightened liberality.

Besides the foregoing there have been added several hundred bottles of samples of agricultural materials and products, numerous specimens of seeds, roots, fibers, fungi, sections of wood, &c.

Work done in connection with the collections.-Professor Baird, during the past year, in addition to his services in regard to the exchanges, natural history, and assistance in correspondence, has completed the systematic description of the land birds of the Pacific States, forming the first volume of ornithology published, in connection with its geological survey, by the State of California. The materials for this work