BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAIi HISTORY) 19 



rock collections made in Arabia by Mr. H. St. J. B. Philby were studied. 

 Further M^ork was done on the rocks of Kenya Colony and Nyasaland, 

 and of South Victoria Land, Antarctica ; and on the granite of the Ross 

 of Mull. In the oceanographical section investigations on glauconite, 

 manganese nodules, and the bottom deposits collected by the Murray 

 Expedition were commenced. 



Work in the Department of Botany consisted largely in the naming 

 and incorporation of collections and re-arrangement of specimens 

 in accordance with recent monographs. Particular subjects of study 

 Avere flowering plants from Ruwenzori, Sudan, Angola, Gulf of Guinea, 

 Borneo, Tibet, Bhutan, and various Arctic regions; Asiatic and West 

 Indian ferns ; Arctic and Antarctic hchens ; diatoms from Palestine and 

 North America ; and Australian and American marine algae. 



Congresses, etc. 

 Mr. W. N. Edwards, Deputy Keeper, attended as the delegate both 

 of the Museum and of His Majesty's Government the Seventeenth 

 International Geological Congress held in Moscow in July. Lt.-Col. 

 W. Campbell Smith, M.C., T.D., Keeper of Minerals, attended a Meeting 

 in Paris of the French Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Dr. W. E. Swinton, Assistant Keeper, represented the Trustees at the 

 Forty-eighth Annual Conference of the Museums Association at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Mr. R. B. Benson, Assistant Keeper, attended 

 the Congress of the Society for British Entomology at Reading. Dr. H. D. 

 Thomas, Assistant Keeper, presided over the Geological Section of the 

 Annual Congress of the South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies held 

 at Hastings. Mr. J. Ramsbottom, O.B.E., Keeper of the Department of 

 Botany, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science of the 

 University of Coimbra on the occasion of celebrations held to mark the 

 fourth centenary of the transfer of the University from Lisbon to Coimbra. 

 The Director and several members of the scientific staff attended the 

 meeting of the British Association at Nottingham in September. 



Advisory and Economic Activities. 



Dr. Anna B. Hastings, Assistant Keeper, was appointed to represent 

 the Museum on the Council of the Freshwater Biological Association of 

 the British Empire ; and Mr. N. D. Riley, Keeper of the Department of 

 Entomology, on a Committee formed to direct the phenological- 

 ecological research previously carried out under the auspices of the 

 Royal Meteorological Society. 



Large numbers of questions of economic importance continue to be 

 referred to the Museum by private individuals as well as by pubKc 

 authorities and departments. Advice was given to the Foreign and 

 Colonial Offices regarding collecting expeditions ; to the Colonial Ofiice, 

 in the preparation of the portions relating to fauna and flora in a Hand- 

 book of Aden ; to the Economic Advisory Council, on the subject of the 

 fauna and flora of Fiji and the western Pacific islands ; to the Govern- 

 ment of Nyasaland with regard to a proposal to introduce large exotic 

 fishes into Lake Nyasa ; to the Air Ministry upon a proposal to estabhsh 

 a bombing range at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire; to the Admiralty 

 regarding the nuisance caused by seaweed at Gibraltar; and to the 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries concerning the Grey Squirrel. 

 Consideration was also given to the question of the pollution of the sea 

 and shore by oil. 



