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[[strikeout]] Wzh [[strikeout, initialed upper left]]
GSA file [[uper left, written upper left]]
[[embossed stamp, oval, illegible, upper left]]
S30013 [[stamped upper right]]
SV [[written, upper right]]
Ertn [[?best guess, written, upper right]]

Washington, D.C. November 1st 1883
Professor S.F. Baird, Director of the National Museum.
Sir_
The only accession to the materia medica collection noted since last report, consists of an addition to the series of Photographs of the Medicinal Plants, by C.H. Lochman.
A generous contribution of indigenous medicinal plants for the Herbarium has been received from Prof. Ward, but not yet entered in the Register.
There is evident need of a proper Case in which to store the Herbarium Specimens, as they accumulate.
About a hundred additional botanical illustrations have been mounted and put on exhibition.
The preparation of labels and compilation of the Pharmacopoias is still continued.
I am strongly of the opinion that the effectiveness of the exhibit in this section would be greatly increased by the use of [[underlined]] square [[underlined]] exhibition bottles instead of the round ones now in use. Owing to refraction and reflections of light due to the cylindrical form of the present bottle, only a narrow line of the enclosed specimen is clearly visible, whereas bottles with a flat surface would exhibit the specimen equally well across the whole diameter.
Very respectfully
J. M. Flint
Curator.