ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 23 



Fluors of great beauty, Cumberland. 



Ruti ef of great size and most remarkable crystalline forms, from Georgia; purchased of 

 Professor Shepard. 



Brucite in very perfect Crystals (Lancaster Co.). 



IS alive Silver and Copper in crystalline dendritic and other forms. Lake Superior. 



Naive Antimony tind Arsenic from Borneo. These are associated with Antimonite and 

 with Pseudomorphous oxide (after the form of the latter), and also with remarkable 

 crystals of Valentinite (?). 



Of Meteoiites, one from Aussen, Haute Garonne, has been procured, new to the Collec- 

 tion, and seven other new falls from America have been obtained by purchase from 

 Professor Shepard. 



But the most valuable addition which the Mineral Department has received for a very 

 lonu time has been effected durin<i the past year in the large Collection, to which allusion 

 has already been made in this Report. This well-known Collection v/as formerly made at 

 great expense by Mr. Allan, of Edinburgh. It was subsequently purchased by 

 R. T. Greg, Esq., of NorcliHe Hull, near Manchester, and has since been added to largely, 

 and with great discrimination, by his son, R. P. Greg, Esq. 



The Collection numbers above 9,000 specimens. It is very rich in British minerals, and 

 in this respect alone forms an imjortant acquisition to the National Collection. But it has 

 also more than justified the grounds on which it was purchased, by the many specimens 

 wliiih its drawers have contributed to fill up deficiencies that previously existed in the 

 Museum. Thus, while several mineral species were represented in the Allan-Greg Collec- 

 tion by series of specimens that might vie for perfection with those in any Collection in 

 the world, it was especially rich in the variety of the localities which it represented, as 

 well as in the still more important point of diversity of species. Already, into only 18 table 

 cases, which have been under arrangement since the incorporation of this Collection with 

 that of the Museum, has been commenced, and into five others in which the arrangement 

 is still incomplete, no less than 1,130 specimens have been introduced from the drawers of 

 Mr. Greg's Collection, among which -31 new species, represented by 55 specimens, are 

 found that were previously unrepresented in the Museum. Moreover, many old and fine 

 specimens, the localities of which have not been placed on record in the Catalogues of the 

 Museum, are matched by small specimens in the Allan-Greg Collection, from which they 

 are enabled to borrow, in some cases with certainty, and in others with great probability, 

 the requisite evidence of the country, and often of the precise locality of their origin. In 

 the very interesting appanage to the Mineral Collection formed by the group of Meteorites, 

 the Museum is largely indebted to this new acquisition. The several talis of Meteorites of 

 which specimens existed in the Museum in January 18G0, numbered 78, namely, 36 

 Meteorites possessing the character of stones, and 42, consisting of (Nickeliferous) iron, 

 more or less free from stony admixture. The Meteorites, new to the Museum, of which 

 spe< imens exist in the Allan-Greti Collection, amount to no less than 31 in number. It 

 may be fuither remarked on this subject, that the acquisitions of the past year , including 

 theses I new Meteorites, together with the valuable donation from Her Maje-ty's Secretary 

 of State for India in Council, and the other eight Meteorites, to which allusion has been 

 made, raise the total number of distinct Meteoric falls from space, represented by specimens 

 in the National Collection, fi\nn the 78 in January 1860 to 122 in January 1861. The 

 finest Meteoric Collection in the world, that of A'ienna, consisted in 1859 of 139 different 

 Meteoiites. 



As regards the general state of the Collection, its condition is thoroughly good. 



Nevil Story Maskelyne. 



Department of Botany. 



The various collections and specimens received during the past year have been examined 

 and partially arranged. A large portion of Dr. Horsfield's great Javanese Herbarium, a 

 considerable part of the Herbarium of the late Professor Nuttall, a collection of plants made 

 in Mogador by the Rev. R. T. Lowe, a continuation of Mr. Thwaites's Ceylon Collection, 

 and also of Mr. Spruce's Brazilian Plants, together with several minor Collections, have been 

 named, arranged, and laid into the General Herbarium; and the whole of the Herbarium 

 and Exhibition cases have been examined and re-caraphored. 



The original drawings made by Mr. James Sowerby for " English Botany," have also 

 been carefully compared with the published work, and put into complete order, and many of 

 the volumes of the Sloanean Herbarium, which have special reference to British Plants, 

 have been thoroughly examined and rendered more easy of consultation ; in the per- 

 formance of which operations much valuable assistance has been afFoided by the 

 Rev. W. W. Newbold. 



220. D 3 The 



