The visitor entering, therefore, Room A, in Plan I,woTild have before him 

 the lowest forms of life which, branching, diverge on the one hand into the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, exhibited inC and D, and on the other into the Animal 

 Kingdom, in B, F, G and H, where the highest of the Invertebrate 

 section of the family tree would be reached — ^li\'ing and fossil forms 

 being exhibited together. An explanatory tablet would here direct 

 the Adsitor upstairs (by an outside stair at the junction of D and H), 

 where the animal pedigree would be continued (Plan II.) by the 

 Vertebrated Animals in Rooms I, J, K, L, M, culminating in Apes and 

 Man in M. 



Not only is the exhibition of the phylo-genetic relationship of each 

 part of the Animal Kingdom to the rest necessary for the student 

 visitor, but the distribution of life over the globe in time and in space is 

 equally so. The galleries N and 0, therefore, would be devoted to the 

 Geological and Geographical Distribution of plants and animals. Rooms 

 P and Q would be required for the display of instances of protective 

 resemblances, commensalism, variation ot species, &c. In Q, R and S, 

 the wall-cases would contain the rocks in their relation to the crust of 

 the earth, while the Mineralogical collections would find a fitting place 

 in the centre-cases of the same galleries. 



It will have been observed that the room marked E was unallotted. 

 An examination of the plans will show that in the construction of the 

 new buildings, the lights of the present American Room of the Ethno- 

 graphical Gallery will be entirely blocked out. New light may be 

 admitted, perhaps by windows to William-Brown Street, but not quite 

 sufficient for showing efficiently the Ethnological objects now arranged 

 there. It is suggested, therefore, to extend the Aquarium into that room ; 

 to monopolise the Egyptian Room (the basement of the Mayer Collection) 

 which is too damp at any rate for the Egyptian Collection, for the 

 ethnographical space thus taken away, and to extend the Mayer Museum 

 into Room E, into which its second-floor exhibits woidd be transferred, 

 while the second floor of the Mayer Museum would become the Egyptian 

 Gallery. 



So far no collections have been allocated to the Entrance Hall and its 

 Gallery. It is proposed to devote the area and the alcoves round it to as 

 complete a collection as possible of the local Flora and Faun;i. The 

 gallery surrounding it would be devoted to the Geographical Distribution 



