150 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Department of Botany. 



During the past year 19,438 specimens have been named, 

 mounted and incorporated into the Herbarium. The additions 

 have been fairly evenly distributed over the collection. 



In the progress of the work the officers of the Departm ent 

 have been occupied as follows : — 



Mr. E. G. Baker has principally been engaged in incorpo- 

 rating with the general Herbarium Polypetalca from Malaya 

 and India presented by Dr. King, from Tropical Africa, 

 presented by Dr. Engler; from the Pamirs, presented by 

 Prof. Duthie ; and collections from California, Mexico, and 

 Persia, by Geo. Hansen, Pringle, and Bornmiiller respectively. 

 The incorporation of Leguminosce mentioned in last year's 

 Report has been continued. The genus Polygala has been 

 revised and rearranged in accordance with Dr. Chodat's 

 Monograph. The genus Galactia has also been revised, and 

 with the assistance of Mr. Britten, the natural order Lythracece 

 has been revised and rearranged in accordance with Dr. 

 Koehne's Monograph. The British PolypetalcB received 

 during the year liave been incorporated with the collection, 

 and a few days were spent in the arrangement of an exhibi- 

 tion of British-grown Woods in the Public Gallery. The^ 

 Polypetaha of Dr. Donaldson Smith's collection from Somali- 

 land and Lake Rudolph were identified, and a new genus and 

 several new species desci'ibed. 



Mr. Britten has devoted much time to helping Mr. Hiern 

 in the preparation of the Welwitsch Catalogue, and to reading 

 the proofs of the same for the press. He has worked at the 

 Orders Bignoniacece, Ruhiacece, Primulacece, Comxjositoi^ 

 Solanacw, LahiaUe, Acanthacece and others. He has also 

 begun an examination of the Sloane Herbarium, and has 

 made some progress in naming the important collection of 

 drawings made during Cook's First Voyage, and the speci- 

 mens of the same in the Herbarium. He has also supervised 

 the preparation of the Catalogue of the Departmental 

 Library. 



Mr. Rendle has worked out and prepared a list with 

 descriptions of new species of the Monocotyledons and 

 Apetalous and Gamopetalous Dicotyledons of Dr. Donald- 

 son Smith's Somaliland collection ; of a small collection from 

 the Philippine Islands by Mr. T. Whitehead; of Tropical 

 African Convolvulacew collected by Dr. Gregory and others ; 

 of Tropical African Asclepiadacece collected by Drs. Gregory, 

 Welwitsch and Taylor ; of the Chinese grasses of the section 

 Paniceoi ; and of Dr. Welwitsch's Tropical African grasses of 

 the same section. In the course of this work the herbarium 



material 



