50 



ACCOUNTS, Sec, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Meteorites. 

 By Presentation : — 



A fragment of the aerolite which fell at Middlesborouoh, in Yorkshire, on the 14th 

 March 1881 : by the Board of Directors of the North Eastern Railway, through Pro- 

 fessor A. S. Herschel, m.a. 



By Exchange : — 



A fragment of the aerolite which fell at Tieschitz, Prerau, Moravia, 15th July 1878. 

 A slice of the aerosiderite found at Chulafinnee, Clairborne Co., Alabama, U.S A., 

 in 1873. 



A slice of that found in Lexington Co.,_ S. Carolina, in 1880. 



A small piece of an aerosiderite belonging to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 



By Purchase : — 



Two small encrusted fragments of the aerosiderolite which fell at Estherville, Iowa, 

 U.SA., on 10th May 1879. 

 A polished slice of the aerosiderite of Coahuila, Mexico. 

 A portion of the aerolite which fell at Orvinio, near Rome, in 1872. 



L. Fletcher. 



Department of Botany. 



The principal work of the Department has consisted in preparing the public gallery. 

 The exhibited collections in the public rooms belongintr to the Department at Bloomsbury 

 were removed to the new building in the early pait uf the year. Many unforeseen diffi- 

 culties have hindered the progress of the work of arranging, while the protection of the 

 collections from dangers incidental to the occupation of a new building has demanded the 

 attention and occupied the time of the officers. Considerable progress has been made in 

 the public gallery in arranging a series of specimens illustrative of the Natural Orders of 

 plants. The exhibition rooms connected with this Department had hitherto been occupied 

 with specimens suitable from their size, or from other peculiai'ities, for exhibition ; and 

 many divisions of the vegetable kingdom were altogether unrepresented. An attempt has 

 now been made to present to the public a series of specimens representing all the Natural 

 Orders, and, to make the exhibition both attractive and instructive, coloured drawings of 

 the plants have been freely used with the specimens. Some of the fossil representatives 

 of Natural Orders are intercalated with the recent specimens, and the distribution of each 

 Order in time and space is shown on a small map. Small diagrams, exhibiting the 

 characters on which the Orders are separated from each other, are introduced into the 

 cases. It is believed that when the exhibition i^ comj^leted it will present a self-interpret- 

 ing view of the distribution and classification of the vegetable kingdom. 



In addition to this work additions have been made to the great Herbarium, especially of 

 plants belonging to the Orders PanuriculacecE, hymphaacea, Crucijerce, SaxifragacecB, 

 Buhiactce, Composite, Campanulacece, Ericacece, EpacridacecB, Convolvulacece, Boruqinea, 

 LoranthacecB, Orchidacea, Scitaminea:, Cyperacea^ and Graminece. In the course of the 

 work the following orders have been more or less rearranged, RanunculacecB, Violacea, 

 Composites, BoragiiitCB, Juncacece, Comwelinacece, and Cyperacece. 



In the beginning of the year the whole of the cellular plants which had been perma- 

 nently placed in the rooms of the upper pavilion were removed to the basement to escape 

 the injury arising from irregular temperature and from smoke and soot. Alterations in 

 the mode of heating having secured the maintenance of a regular temperature and the 

 cure of the other evils, the collections were restored to their permanent position with satis- 

 factory results. 



The collection of seeds and fruits made by Sir Hans Sloane has been incorporated 

 with the general series, and has thus been made accessible to students. 



A careful revision and thorough re-arrangement of the British Herbarium has been 

 made, the localities of the specimens have been noted, the desiderata determined, and 

 several important contributions from British botanists have been received, and incor- 

 porated, with the view of making this invaluable collection more complete. 



The principal addition to the collections during the year has been the acquisition by 

 purchase of the large and valuable Herbarium of Mosses formed by the late Dr. Hampe, 

 containing about 25,000 specimens ; a large proportion being types of species, described 

 by Hampe, Mueller, and other bryologists. This important addition to the Herbarium, 

 which had been already enriched by the purchase of the Mosses and Hepatic^ of Wm. 

 Wilson, and the Hepaticce of Hampe, makes it the most extensive and valuable collection 

 of mosses and their allies in existence. 



A unique and very important Lycopodiaceous cone from the coal measures of France, 

 beautifully preserved in silex, has been acquired irom the rejjresentatives of the late 

 Prof. Schimper, together with a fiagment of another cone, sujiplementing a specimen 



which 



