BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 23 



Hydrophilidse and the incorporation of the Bourgoin collection of 

 Cetoniidae. On the Hymenoptera, further progress was made with the 

 revision of the sawflies and rearrangements were made in many different 

 sections. The collection was enriched by 40,000 parasitic Hymenoptera 

 collected in Sweden during the year. In the Hemiptera, revisions of the 

 Cimicidae of the world and of British Hemiptera as a whole were con- 

 siderably advanced. On the Orthoptera, apart from minor rearrange- 

 ments, time was chiefly spent on a revision of the African collections. 

 The most noteworthy event in the whole history of the Neuroptera, 

 Odonata and Trichoptera collections occurred during the year, namely, 

 the purchase of the McLachlan collection. Work has been devoted 

 almost exclusively to the incorporation of this material and of that 

 received from the late Professor Tillyard. Close collaboration has 

 continued with the Imperial Institute of Entomology. 



In the Department of Geology much work was done on the Mesozoic 

 and Tertiary shark remains ; Inferior Oolite gastropods and lamelli- 

 branchs ; the non-European Cainozoic gastropods and lamelUbranchs ; 

 liparoceratids from the Lias; and on Tertiary plants from Mull. The 

 thin sections of fossils cut in the Department during the year for purposes 

 of study numbered 289. 



In the Department of Mineralogy, 286 X-ray photographs of various 

 minerals were taken in the course of identifications and research, and 426 

 thin sections of rocks and meteorites were prepared. The more important 

 of the minerals studied and reported on were osbornite (a very rare 

 mineral occurring in some meteorites), francohte, russellite (a new mineral), 

 kaolinite, chamosite, thuringite, and various chlorites. Collections of 

 rocks from Arabia, Burma, West Greenland, Kenya, and South Victoria 

 Land (Antarctica) were specially studied. In the oceanographical 

 section, work on the bottom samples collected by the Murray Expedition 

 to the Indian Ocean was continued. Chemical work has been at a stand- 

 still on account of the complete overhaul of the laboratory which is still 

 in progress. 



In the Department of Botany, work consisted mainly in the naming 

 and incorporation of collections and the continuation of monographic 

 work on several genera and famihes. Among the specimens named 

 during the year were collections of flowering plants from Europe, the 

 Arctic, Jan Mayen, Newfoundland, the Cayman Islands, West Indies, 

 East Indies, and parts of Africa ; fresh-water algae and diatoms from 

 Asia Minor and the Arctic ; lichens from the Arctic, Antarctic, and 

 Australasia ; and fungi collected by various expeditions. 



zs, etc. 



Dr. C. Forster-Cooper, F.R.S., has accepted the office of a Trustee 

 of the National Museum of Wales, in succession to Dr. Regan. He has 

 also been elected an honorary member of the General Organizing Com- 

 mittee for the Eighteenth International Geological Congress, to be held 

 in London in 1940 ; and has been appointed to represent the Trustees on 

 a Committee of the Economic Advisory Council which is considering 

 the possibility of international action for the protection of the fauna 

 and flora of Asia. Besides Dr. Forster-Cooper, Lieut. -Colonel W. Camp- 

 bell Smith, M.C., T.D., and Mr. W. N. Edwards have been appointed to 

 represent the Trustees at the forthcoming International Geological Cod- 



