10 BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 



. A new type of wall-case with glass shelves and flood lighting was 

 fitted in the Mineralogical Gallery. In this was placed a selection of the 

 larger and more attractive specimens from the collection. A set of 

 photographs of limestone caverns in New Mexico was mounted and 

 fixed to the wall in the Gallery ; and the specimens of breccias, con- 

 glomerates, and sandstones were rearranged in the window-cases. 



A temporary exhibit of woad was put up in the Department of 

 Botany. The collection of plants from Patagonia, lent by His Majesty 

 the King, was placed on exhibition. An exhibit was arranged in the 

 Central Hall in connexion with the centenary of the discovery of the 

 nucleus of the cell by Robert Brown. 



Study Collections. 

 The usual work of naming, labelling, registering, and incorporating 

 accessions continued in all Departments. As in previous years, the 

 Trustees are much indebted to numerous workers who gave their 

 services voluntarily, many of whom worked continuously throughout 

 the year. Research workers were given access to the collections in all 

 Departments and were assisted in their investigations. 



Part of the collection of large African ungulates was transferred to 

 new cabinets and rearranged. Several large collections of birds 

 were determined and incorporated, and the rearrangement of the birds 

 of prey was completed. Continued progress was made with the re- 

 arrangement o± the bird skeletons. In the reptile section, the frogs of 

 the family Brevicipitidae, and the geckos of the oriental region, 

 among many minor groups, were revised and rearranged. Among 

 the fishes considerable progress was made with the rearrangement of 

 the spirit collection, and work on a catalogue of flatfishes was further 

 advanced. Work was continued on the Godwin-Austen, Blanford, and 

 Benson collections of Mollusca, and the Cephalopoda obtained by the 

 " Arcturus " were studied. 



In the Department of Entomology, work upon all orders of insects 

 consisted largely in the incorporation of important collections, after 

 identification either by members of the staff concerned, or by specialists 

 outside the Museum. Such incorporations included Empididae from 

 New Zealand, among the Diptera ; the Lyle collection and part of the 

 Salt collection among the Hymenoptera ; and the whole or part of the 

 Clark, Andrewes, and Cameron collections of Coleoptera. Steady 

 progress was made in indexing the collections belonging to a number 

 of orders, and during the early part of the year much time was neces- 

 sarily occupied in transferring the entire collections of Lepidoptera, 

 with the exception of the Microlepidoptera, to larger rooms rendered 

 vacant by the removal of other orders of insects to the new building 

 provided by the Empire Marketing Board. 



In the Department of Geology work was done on Hyracotherium and 

 other mammals, and the skeleton of Teleoceras was mounted and 

 exhibited. Progress was made with the examination of Liassic Plesio- 

 sarus and Nigerian reptiles. The Lower Old Red Sandstone fishes 

 occupied much time in curating and research. The British Eocene and 

 Oligocene Gastropoda were entirely revised and re-labelled, and the 

 whole of the Jurassic general collections were rearranged. Most of the 

 work on the study collections of Invertebrate fossils was done on the 



