EEPOET OF THE COMMITTEE. 197 



A small series of Land Siiells from Watal, containing some 

 interesting additions to the MoUuscan Collection, and a collec- 

 tion of Marine Shells from the South and South-east Coast of 

 South Africa were presented and sent by Henry E. Burnup, 

 Esq., of Pietermaritzburg, Natal; and J. Dacosta, Esq., has 

 given to the Society a few interesting Shells from Lake Tan- 

 ganyika and others from tropical South America. 



The Eev. John E. Hull contributed a collection of eighty-one 

 species of British Spiders, which will form a good nucleus for a 

 more extensive collection of this interesting but rather neglected 

 and despised group of animals, whose often beautiful forms are 

 almost unknown, and whose utility in the economy of nature 

 is almost unrecognised and uncared for. It is therefore with 

 some pleasure we acknowledge this small collection, the more 

 so as it is accompanined with a careful Catalogue of this group 

 of animals, which has just been contributed to the Natural 

 History Transactions by the Eev. Gentleman named above, and 

 has recently been published in Yol. XIII., part 1. 



A most important, extensive, and carefully -named Herbarium 

 of British Plants, formed and named by the Eev. H. E. Fox, of 

 Durham, has lately been presented by that gentleman on the 

 occasion of his leaving Durham to reside in the South of England. 

 It contains also a large number of European Plants and forms a 

 valuable addition to the present Herbarium of the Society, with 

 which it will be incorporated. It will not be irrevelant to 

 mention that the generous donor of this collection is a relative 

 of the late George Townsend Fox, Esq., of Westoe, who in 1827 

 compiled and edited a " Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum" a 

 short time before the Natural History Society was formed, and 

 before the contents of the Allan Museum were handed over to 

 the custodianship of the newly -formed Natural History Society 

 in 1829. 



Very few donations have been received for the Ethnological 

 Collections, but an important collection of Ancient Pottery dis- 

 covered in Egypt in 1894, by Prof. W. Flinders Petrie, has been 

 obligingly presented by that gentleman. This collection consists 

 of fifty-six examples of carefully-made Jars, urn- shaped, and 



