BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 27 



A fine collection of Rhodesian and East African mounted game 

 trophies was received under the Will of the late Mr. Norman B. Smith. 



The late Mr. J. F. Hanbury bequeathed to the Museum his fine 

 herbarium containing valuable voucher material for a considerable 

 number of records, and a fine series of the genus Hieracium including 

 the collection of James Backhouse, the first monographer of the genus 

 in Britain. IVIr. Hanbury also bequeathed all his interests in the London 

 Catalogue of British Plants, together with a legacy of £100, to the Keeper 

 of the Department of Botany, Mr. A. J. Wilmott, Deputy Keeper, and 

 Mr. H. W. Pugsley. 



The late Mr. Nevil Masterman bequeathed to the Museum a general 

 collection of natural history specimens and books, the latter incjuding a 

 number not previously represented in the Museum Library. 



Purchases. 



Important purchases included a valuable collection from Nepal of 

 2,200 birds, belonging to 270 species, with carefully recorded localities ; 

 a collection of fish otohths consisting of about 2,300 specimens, many of 

 which had been figured and described ; the original pattern plates of 

 Hiibner's " Exotischer Schmetterlinge " and " Zutrage zur Sammlung 

 exotischer Schmetterlinge " ; the Robert McLachlan collection of Neu- 

 roptera, comprising 50,000 specimens, including 500 types, the most 

 important of its kind ever formed in this country ; 56 fossil mammahan 

 remains from the Lower Miocene of Kenya Colony, including types and 

 figured specimens ; a flawless step-cut wine-yellow danburite of gem 

 quality from the Ruby Mines, Mogok, Burma; part of the herbarium 

 belonging to C. Christensen, consisting of 2,800 specimens of ferns ; a 

 collection of 2,531 flowering plants from Mexico ; and 2,000 drawings 

 of fungi by Dr. B. Knauth. 



Collecting Expeditions. 



Dr. Carrisso's botanical expedition to Angola in 1937, of which 

 Mr. A. W. Exell, Assistant Keeper, was a member, collected some 30,000 

 specimens of which one set (approximately 5,150 plants, the greater 

 number of which have already been received) is coming to the Museum. 

 After the death of Dr. Carrisso and the consequent closing of the expedi- 

 tion, Mr. Exell continued to collect in the company of Dr. J. Gossweiler. 

 Mr. Vladimir Martino, as a result of his collecting trip to Jugoslavia in 

 1937, sent to the Museum interesting collections of mammals and birds. 

 Baron B. Lipthay's collecting tour in Rumania in 1937 resulted in the 

 acquisition of 4,500 insects in excellent condition. Captain F. Kingdon- 

 Ward collected 980 specimens of plants for the Museum in Western 

 China. Mr. H. D. Jordan's expedition to Finmark resulted in the acqui- 

 sition of 350 plants. Mr. W. G. Alexander brought back 678 flowering 

 plants and 614 cryptogams for the Museum from the Cayman Islands. 



Dr. H. Scott and Mr. E. B. Britton, Assistant Keepers, who returned 

 in March from an expedition to the Yemen, South-West Arabia, brought 

 back a satisfactory entomological collection, and 582 excellent herbarium 

 specimens from a region which was little known botanically. Dr. G. 

 Taylor, Assistant Keeper, returned in December from a most successful 

 botanical expedition to Bhutan and Tibet. Mr. P. M. Game, Assistant 

 Keeper, collected about 300 rock and mineral specimens, while on the 



