BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 15 



fall of exceptionally large meteorites which resulted in the formation 

 of meteorite craters and the devastation of wide areas on the earth's 

 surface. 



In the Department of Botany a little over 41,000 specimens were 

 incorporated in the collections and over 115,000 specimens were 

 received and sorted. Special investigations were carried out on the 

 genera Meconopsis, Magnolia, Combretum, Selaginella and Caulerpa ; 

 and collections from the Great Barrier Reef, Tortugas, Gulf of Guinea, 

 Burma-Tibet, Macedonia, and Angola were studied. In the General 

 Herbarium the Umbelliferae, part of Fagaceae and certain families 

 of Monocolytedona were rearranged and the indexing and recovering 

 of the British Herbarium was completed. 



Congresses, etc. 



Dr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S. and Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith represented 

 the Museum at the Annual Conference of the Museums Association, 

 held at Norwich from 3 to 7 July. Mr. W. Campbell Smith attended, as 

 a delegate of the Museum and of His Majesty's Government, the 

 International Geological Congress, held in Washington, D.C., from 

 12 to 29 July. Dr. W. T. Caiman, F.R.S. represented the Museum at a 

 Meeting of the Council of the Freshwater Biological Association, held 

 at Windermere on 5 September. Mr. A. C. Townsend attended, as the 

 representative of the Museum, the Annual Conference of the Library 

 Association, held at Harrogate from 18 to 21 September. Dr. G. F. 

 Herbert Smith was the delegate of the Museum at the Tenth Annual 

 Conference of the Association of Special Libraries and Information 

 Bureaux, held at Bristol from 22 to 24 September ; and also at the 

 National Conference for the Preservation of Rural England, held at 

 Buxton from 13 to 15 October. 



The Director and several members of the scientific staff attended the 

 meeting of the British Association at Leicester in September. 



The Museum was represented on the panel of advisers to the United 

 Kingdom delegation to the International Conference for the Protection 

 of the Fauna and Flora of Africa, held in London in November, by 

 Dr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S. and Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith. For the 

 preparation of the first Annex to the Convention, Captain J. G. 

 DoUman and Mr. P. R. Lowe were added to the panel, and the former 

 was appointed Joint Secretary of the Technical Committee. 



Advisory and Economic Activities. 

 During the past year a considerable amount of assistance was given 

 by the Department of Zoology to the Ministry of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries in connexion with the musk rat menace. Advice on this 

 matter was also given to many public bodies and private individuals 

 who asked for information. Much attention was paid to the recoloniza- 

 tion of London and other home ports by the black rat {Rattus rattus). 

 Assistance was given to H.M. Customs and Excise in the difiicult task 

 of determining imported mammal skins for tariff purposes. Various 

 problems connected with whaling, sealing, tropical diseases, and 

 colonial agriculture were also dealt with. Mr. H. W. Parker served 

 as a member of the Committee on Reptile Skins set up by the Imperial 

 Institute and drafted the schedules to the Committee's report. Much 

 work was done on the identification of commercial reptile skins. 



