110 Address. [Feb. 



Fiihrer. The presentations, including books, amount to 6,698 items, and 

 this large increase to the collections tends to delay the issue of cata- 

 logues. The number of visitors was about 285,820. The most inter- 

 esting additions to the collections have been in the Archaeological section 

 and Coin Cabinet ; these are noted elsewhere. A marked feature of the 

 Museum is the department for the sale of art-ware, which appears 

 to be flourishing. 



Colombo Museum. — The Reports, for 1887, by Mr. A. Haly, the 

 Director, and Mr. F. H. M. Carbet, the Librarian, contain much inter- 

 esting information regarding the working and progress of this Museum. 

 The principal additions and other points of interest have been noted 

 under their respective heads. 



JPhayre Museum, Rangoon. — This Museum seems to be doing well. 

 As noticed elsewhere, the staff have been chiefly employed in making 

 a complete collection of Burmese entomology. Nothing has been done 

 in other departments of Natural History. There is a good collection 

 of Economic Products, and arrangements are being made to add other 

 local specimens not represented. A collection of Timbers will shortly 

 be made and placed in the Museum. A collection illustrative of the 

 process by which tin is obtained from the ore at Renaung, on the 

 borders of Tenasserim, has recently been added. It is hoped that the 

 Museum will form an essential feature of the proposed Jubilee Memorial 

 Hall. 



I regret that I have been unable to obtain any account of the 

 Lahore Museum, which is always obtaining acquisitions of archaeological 

 interest. 



Otheb Institutions and Societies. 



Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. — The Report of the past year shows 

 that this garden is making steady progress under the management 

 of Dr. Gr. King, F. R. S. Further improvements in the roads and lay- 

 ing out have been carried out. There has been a large demand for 

 RJieea fibre and also for seeds and plants of the rain tree. Mahogany 

 and other economic trees and plants have been largely distributed. 

 Trials have been made, in Sikkim, of a special kind of Mexican wheat 

 and of an Abysinnian grain, called Seff (Eragrostis Abysinnicd) , both of 

 which grow at high altitudes, but without success. 



The Herbarium, under Dr. D. Prain, has been considerably enriched 

 by many valuable contributions of plants from Burma and the Shan 

 Hills, the Sikkim-Nepal Frontier, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Kashmir 

 and other parts of India and its borderlands, as well as from foreign 

 countries. The set of plants of the Euplwrbiacce have been returned by 



