4 
preparing for the Essay Competition on wild flowers to identify the 
plants of the district. Altogether 320 specimens were shown, and 
the Committee is again indebted to Miss Thomas and others for this 
important work. 
The number of boys and girls from the City and County Schools 
who competed for the prizes offered by the President of the Perth¬ 
shire Society of Natural Science was 189, 76 being from the County 
and 113 from the City. 
The Nineth Annual Essay Competition open to boys and girls 
attending any school in the City or County this year is on “ Land 
and Freshwater Shells of Perthshire and their Inhabitants.” Nearly 
4000 circulars, setting forth the conditions of the Competition, have 
been issued to the Schools. Living examples of several Perthshire 
forms of this interesting group have been placed in the Lecture Room 
with the view to help those interested. In season, salmon fry, frog 
spawn, and other living animals were on view. 
A second course of ten Lectures on Forestry, under the auspices 
of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College and the 
County Council of Perth, was given in the Museum Lecture Room 
by Dr. A. Borthwick, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. 
The course was well attended, fully 60 students interested in trees 
having enrolled. It is proposed to give a series on Agriculture in the 
coming winter. 
Several University students were granted special facilities in the 
Museum, enabling them to study local material. 
The number of natural history specimens borrowed from the 
Museum for teaching purposes was 219, as against 123 last year; 
and the number of applications for information in pure and applied 
natural history was 76, as against 39 last year. 
On three occasions your Committee granted the use of the 
Museum in connection with Conversaziones held in the adjoining 
rooms. 
For the year ending May 15th, 1906. the number of Visitors to 
the Museum was 16,713, making a total of 176,462 since the opening. 
The Perthshire or Local Museum. 
The specimens acquired and placed in this Museum during the 
past year will be found recorded in the list of additions at the end of 
the Report. 
A number of interesting Photographs and Drawings have been 
added to the Mammal collections, characteristic attitudes being 
illustrated in this way. Some of the specimen plates of J. G. Millais' 
