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species.
     
When the present curator was placed in charge of this department, in the fall of 1880, the entire alcoholic collection of marine invertebrates, including the mollusks, and also many of the dried specimens, was easily stored in a small room in the west basement of the Smithsonian Institution, leaving a sufficient amount of space for several work tables. This room is now too small to accommodate even the alcoholic Crustacea that have accumulated since then. In the main Smithsonian hall five or six cases only were required for the display and storage of the dried specimens, consisting mainly of the corals collected by the United States Exploring Expedition, although there were also a few boxes in the general store-room containing specimens obtained at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. None of the Fish Commission collections of marine invertebrates had yet been sent to Washington, but they were