42 ACCOUNTS, &C., 9F THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Meteorites. 



By Presentation : — 

 Specimens of Ovifak iron, now supposed to be of terrestrial origin : by Prof. A. 

 E. Nordenskiold. 



Bi/ Purchase: — 



A large piece of the meteorite, which fell at Estherville in Emmet Co., Iowa, U.S.A., 

 on the 10th May 1879 : weight 258 lbs._ 



A meteoric stone, weight 3 oz. 8 grains ; fell in the Bois de la Fontaine, near Mung, 

 Loiret, in 1825. 



The number of the persons whose visits to the Department during the past year have 

 been recorded as made for the purposes of consultation or study, is 646. 



Lazarus Fletcher. 



Department of Botany. 



The ordinary work of the Department has necessarily been interrupted by the prepa- 

 rations for, and the actual removal of the collections to the New Museum, and by the 

 subsequent arranging of the collections in the galleries allocated to the Department in the 

 new building. The Herbarium was inaccessible to scientific men only during the two 

 weeks when it was beinir transported from Bloomsbury to Kensington. The collection 

 of fruits and seeds has been placed alongside of the plants in the great Herbarium, and 

 arranged in the same order. Owing to the want of fittings in the public gallery only a 

 small portion of the exhibited collections were transferred to Kensington in 1880. 



Attention has been given to the formation of a good working library for the Depart- 

 ment, rendered necessary by the separation of the collections from the Museum Library. 

 Considerable time has been spent in selecting and collating suitable books. An important 

 addition to the library was received from John W. IN'Hers, Esq., who presented the works 

 which his father, the late John INliers, F.K.s., used when engaged on the numerous 

 botanical memoirs he published. These works were annotated by him in relation to the 

 plants in his herbarium, which was bequeathed to the Trustees, and became their pro- 

 perty in 1879. Sixty-eight works, many of them voluminous and expensive illustrated 

 publications, were presented by Mr. Miers, who desired that the books and plants should 

 remain associated. 



While continuous work in the Herbarium has not been possible, many small collections 

 have been incorporated during the year, especially of plants belonging to the Natural 

 Orders Sterculiacea, ResedacecB, Cruci/ercB, and Gentianacecz. The plants of Chelsea 

 Gardens have been mounted and incorporated with the Herbarium. In the course of 

 the work the following Natural Orders have been more or less re-arranged: — Cuppar- 

 idecE, MalvucecB, Rubiacece, Orchidea, Musci, Alga, and Fungi. 



There have been added to the Herbarium during the year a valuable collection of 

 plants from the Kurrum Valley, Afghanistan, consisting of 422 species, formed and pre- 

 sented by Dr. J. E.T. Aitchison; 125 species of plants from Java, collected by Forbes; 

 725 species of plants from Astrakan ; 151 species of plants from Songoria, collected by 

 Schrenk ; an interesting collection fron Natal, by the Eev. 'V\ '. Greenstock ; a small 

 collection from the Sierra Nevada, Columbia, made by F. A. Simmons; a collection from 

 Guatemala, made by Keck, and from the Argentine Republic, by Hieronymus ; 984 plants 

 of Northern Africa, collected by Gandoger; 468 species from the South of Spain, collected 

 by Huter, Posta, and Rigo ; 443 species from Italy, collected by Strobyl ; and 200 species 

 from Sicily, collected by Lojacona. To the collection of Cryptogamic plants have been 

 added 144 species of Ferns from Madagascar, collected by the Kev. G. Shaw ; 50 species 

 from Trinidad, collected by Fendler, and 150 species from Italy, in continuation of the 

 collections of the Cryptogamic Society ; a small series of FJepaticrc, in continuation trom 

 Eabenhorst, and 100 mosses from Fiedler ; 100 species of European Lichens, by Raben- 

 horst; and 150 from Egypt, collected by Larbalestier ; 300 species of European Algae, 

 collected and named by Le Joli ; a small collection by Rabenhorst, and another of 

 Scandinavian species, by Wittrock and Nordstedt ; 400 species of Fungi, by Thuemen ; 

 120 species by Spegazzini ; 100 species by Behm ; 100 species by Oudeman ; and the 

 same number from Kunze, 



To the British Herbarium there have been added during the year a large collection of 

 the plants of Oxfordshire, formed by the late Alfred French, and consisting of 2,482 speci- 

 mens ; and the Important Herbarium of Lichens, formed by Mr. W. Joshua, containing 976 

 species (a small proportion being European), represented by 1,500 labelled specimens. In 

 addition to these there have been acquired a complete set of Dr. Cocks' Algae, consisting of 

 100 species, and a similar set of Chalmers' Scottish Algse, consisting of 100 species ; and a 

 collection of 350 species of Lichens, found by Larbalestier. 



To the histological collection there have been added 120 preparations of Fungi, by 

 Zimmerman, and 189 preparations of cellular plants by Joshua. 



The 



