Of scientific collections we may say, that in the Institution from which we date these remarks, going back only fourteen years from the issuing of our first number, the entire mineralogical and geological collection of the college was transported to Philadelphia in one small box, and there, for lack of information elsewhere, the specimens were named by the late Dr. Adam Seybert, then fresh from the celebrated school of Werner at Freiburg in Germany, perhaps the only man then in this country who could be regarded as a mineralogist scientifically trained. Now, mineralogy and geology are familiar to our legislators and our youth; and the institution which sent forth its little box of unknown mineral treasures, unfolds to its pupils and the world a magnificent collection not surpassed, if equalled, in the United States. Boston, which at our earliest date presented only the limited collection of the Linnæan Society, now opens to the student a rich and beautiful museum of natural history; and Harvard University at Cambridge has a fine botanical garden under an able and zealous botanist--a well furnished and successful observatory, and a rich collection of minerals and fossils, including a skeleton of the Mastodon, which is rivalled only by the specimen of unexampled magnitude and perfection, in the private museum of Dr. John C. Warren in Boston. Philadelphia may also boast of her cabinets of natural history, public and private: and one of the noblest collections of birds in the world,[D] bestowed on his country by Mr. Wilson of Delaware, has been, within a few months, added to the valuable collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences at that place. When we began our Journal, not one of the States had been surveyed in relation to its geology and natural history; now those that have not been explored are few in number. State collections and a United States Museum hold forth many allurements to the young naturalist, as well as to the archæologist and the student of his own race. The late Exploring Expedition with the National Institute, has enriched the capital with treasures rarely equalled in any country, and the Smithsonian Institution recently organized at Washington, is about to begin its labors for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. It must not be forgotten that the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists--composed of individuals assembled from widely separate portions of the Union--by the seven sessions which it has held, and by its rich volume of reports, has produced a concentration and harmony of effort which promise happy results, especially as, like the British Association, it visits different towns and cities in its annual progress.