C PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
REPORT OF CURATOR. 
I have the honour to submit to you the following report:— 
The work of this my first year in your Museum has been of an 
interesting and varied kind. Since my appointment, a little over a 
year ago, your Museum has been arranged and formally opened by 
one who, we are proud to know, takes an interest in our Society—I refer 
to Sir Wm. Flower, of the British Museum, who found time to come 
and encourage us, gave us good advice for our future develop¬ 
ment, and expressed not a little satisfaction with our past per¬ 
formance. I am sure we are all very grateful to him for the trouble 
he took. 
In the Perthshire, or Local, Museum we have now got things into 
shape, and although there remains a great deal yet to be done, it is 
but a question of time and means. 
The Geological Department, which is under the superintendence 
of our President, has now assumed somewhat the lines upon which 
it is intended to proceed. The principal gift to this department for 
the year consists of a series of Highland Metamorphic Rocks from the 
Lawers district, sent in by Mr. P. Macnair. Among other noteworthy 
additions we have received a number of Clay Concretions from the 
Meigle Brick and Tile Works, from Mr. Henderson, and a series of 
Old Red Sandstone Fossils from Mr. James Reid of Blairgowrie. 
The Botanical Department has taken a more practical shape. 
Messrs. Wm. Barclay, R. H. Meldrum, and Jas. Coates have laboured 
to make the collections now placed along the cases of the south wall 
as complete and interesting as space permitted. The mosses under 
Mr. Meldrum’s charge are shown on tablets in the west table case, 
all the species being labeled with their localities as well as names. 
We are in hopes before long to illustrate this section with drawings, 
showing the fruiting of all the families, and also to illustrate the 
typical life histories of the order. In the herbarium is now arranged, 
in a series of boxes, the collection of mosses of the county. 
The Ferns and Flowering Plants have been arranged respectively 
in the south table cases and wall case. As far as possible we have 
endeavoured to show the most characteristic forms to be met with in 
the county, while the rarer species may be examined in the herbarium. 
We have tried to make the exhibited plants as instructive as possible. 
There is attached to each species the specific name, the common 
name, and the name of the collector and locality. And, further, each 
family is illustrated with coloured drawings to show the plan, section, 
and organs of the flower in some well-marked type. These latter 
are a work which, when completed, will add very materially to the 
value of the collection for teaching purposes. For this task the 
Society is indebted to Miss M. G. Dickson, who has expended a 
large amount of time and care in their execution. 
On the west wall we have, in what will one day be a very hand¬ 
some case, the Perthshire Trees. The work of illustrating the life 
histories of the trees by preparations of fruit, seed, and seedlings is 
being carried on by Mr. A. Brown; while for the photographs, which 
show the trees in summer and winter foliage, we are indebted to a 
