ACCOUNTS, SiC, OP THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 49 



Library, §-c. — Narrow Gallery, No. 3.— One-half of this gallery has just been fitted 

 up with book-cases for the reception of the Library belonging to the Geological Depart- 

 ment, at present placed in Narrow Gallery, No. 1. As soon as these book-cases are ready 

 for use the Departmental Library will be transferred to them, and the book-cases so 

 vacated in No, 1 Nari-ow Gallery will be entirely devoted to the purposes of the General 

 Library. 



Stratic/rapliical and Type Collections. — Narroav Gallery, No. 4 — The western side 

 of this gallery was fitted up with wall-cases early in the past year (1883). Six bays 

 upon the east side, upon Avhich i'ramed slabs covered with reptilian remains, or with 

 footprints of birds or reptiles, and the tracks of invertebrate animals, had been fixed, are 

 DOW being cased over with glazed fronts by Her Majesty's Office of Works. 



No table-cases are as yet provided for the floor-space of this gallery. 



Fossil Corals, Sponges, Fi)raminifera, and Plants.- — Gallery C. — This gallery, which 

 was filted up with table and wall-cases in 1882, has been under arrangement during the 

 past year (1883). Wall-cases 1-5, west side, and Table-cases 1-9, on the same side, are 

 devoted to the exhibition of the Fossil Corals (Zoantharia). 



Wall-cases 6-9, also west side, and Table-cases 10-16, on the same side, contain the 

 Hydrozoa, the Spongida, and the Foraminifera. 



Wall-cases 10-18, and Table -cases 17-32, on the east side, are occupied with the 

 collection of Fossil Plants. 



Fossil Corals. — With a few exceptions, and the recent additions made to the collection, 

 the Fossil Corals (both British and Foreign) may now be said to be fully arranged, each 

 specimen being mounted ujjon a tablet, or ujjon a stand, Avith the locality and formation 

 attached to each, and, as far as possible, named ; every "type-specimen " being specially 

 indicated by a small green ticket. 



Seven thousand six hundred and sixty-eight specimens have been mounted on tablets, 

 and 532 larger examples fixed on stands, and placed on the steps of the wall-cases. 



The Fossil Spongida, which will occupy five table-cases and four wall-cases, are now 

 under arrangement. They form a most extensive series, and are chiefly derived from the 

 Chalk of Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, that of the east and south of England, the 

 Greensand of Warminster and Blackdown, the Chalk of Hanover, of Coesfeld, Westphalia, 

 the Upper Jura of Randen in Wurtemburg, with a few forms from the Trias of St. Cassian, 

 the Devonian of New York, the Silurian of Ottawa, Indiana, and Tennessee, and the 

 Cambrian of Wales. 



A Catalogue of this division has just been completed by Dr. G. J. Hinde, F.G.S. 



Fossil Plants. — (East side.) Table-cases 17-19, and Wall-cases 10-12 are occupied 

 with the remains of Tertiary Plants, commencing with those from the Forest-bed Series 

 on the Norfolk coast and the Miocene of Antrim, Ireland. 



The Fossil Plants of Bournemouth, and of Plemjjstead, Alum Bay, &c.. Isle of Wight, 

 are well represented ; also the Fossil Fruits of the London Clay from the Isle of Sheppey. 



Wall-case 12 contains a fine sei'ies of Leaves of Palms, and Fruits of Nipadites. One 

 fine palm-leaf {Iriartea) from the Middle Bagshot Beds, Bournemouth, measures 3 feet 

 by 4 feet. 



Wall-case 13, and Table- case 20, contain the fronds and stems of Ferns, ConifercB and 

 CycadecE, &c., from the Chalk, Greensand, Gault, Wealden, and Portlandian Beds. On 

 the upper shelves of the wall-case are slabs of Lithographic Stone, with imbedded branches 

 of Coniferce from Solenhofen in Bavaria. 



Wall-case 14, and Table-cases 21 and 22, contain Plant-remains from the Kimmeridge, 

 Oxfordian and Stonesfield Slate ; with foliage and fruits of ZamicB and fronds of Fern 

 from the Inferior Oolite of Gristhorpe Bay, Scarborough, &c. Table-case 23, and the 

 rest of Wall-case 14, contain Conifers and Ferns from the Lias and Trias formations. 



Wall cases 15 to 18, and Table-cases 24-32, will be entirely occupied by the Palaeozoic 

 Plants at present under arrangement, and for which Mr. Kidston is preparing a Catalogue. 

 Next to Wall-case 16 is placed a compressed trunk of Sigitlaria from the Coal-measures, 

 and a shorter cylindrical cast in sandstone of an uncompressed stem from the Forest of 

 Wyre Coal-field. On either side of Wall-case 14, on the wall are fixed branches of 

 a Coniferous Tree, Araucariles peregrinvs, from the Lias ot Lyme Regis. 



In the centre of the gallery is placed a massive trunk of a huge silicified Coniferous 

 Tree (Cedroxylon), from the Portlandian of the Isle of Portland, 4 feet in height, girth, 

 9 feet 6 inches. 



A very fine Opalized Tree, 9 feet in height and 7 feet 7 inches in girth, is also placed 

 upon a stand in the centre of this gallery. It is referred to the Coniferaa, and to the genus 

 Spondylostrobus of von Mueller. It was obtained from a Tertiary lava-stream, Macquarie 

 Plains, 32 miles from Hobart Town, Tasmania, and was exhibited at the Great Exhibition 

 in 1851, and afterwards presented by the Tasmanian Commissioners to the British Museum, 

 but never exhibited until the present year from want of space. 



This gallery was opened to the public on the 26th December 1883. 

 0.63. G 



