156 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
into a small vial with a little alchohol when collecting, 
this will be quite sufficient for the time. 
Botany .—The Herbarium now contains many thousand 
specimens of Perthshire plants. These are in course of 
being mounted, and when they are, will be available for 
inspection by members under supervision; but as they are 
fragilejand easily injured, they cannot be left thrown open, 
as other collections are. In this section may be described 
the Perthshire Woods. A large collection, in addition to 
those already in the Museum, has been received, and will 
soon.be exhibited in cases, which have been made for the 
purpose. 
Geology .—A lot remains to be done in this department, 
but specimens are coming in. Lessees of quarries are 
giving examples of the local building stones, which will be 
useful; but any one might give material help by sending 
up specimens of the various stones to be found in the 
boulder-clay, or any specimens of rocks or minerals in their 
individual neighbourhood. All donors of specimens— 
whether of plants, animals, or minerals—should be careful 
to givejwith them a note of the date and locality where 
they were got, with name of the donor. All packages to 
be left or sent addressed to the Curator, Perthshire Natural 
History! Museum, Tay Street, Perth. 
In concluding this sketch or review of the work done, 
and progress made, during the past year, I may say that I am 
sure it will have been pleasing to you to know that since 
the opening of the Museum, the number of visitors has 
been so large, and that all classes of the community con¬ 
tinue to visit it; and I am also sure that you will be glad 
to have heard that so many intelligent working-men spend 
their Saturday afternoons in the Museum, carefully in¬ 
specting the various collections; and evidently doing so not 
for mere curiosity’s sake, but for information and instruc¬ 
tion. This is as it should be, and may it be freely used as 
such. The|Museum was thrown open without charge for 
educational!purposes, in the belief that the privilege would 
not befcabused but appreciated; and it is most gratifying to 
find that such is the case, and long may it continue. I 
have said the Museum is not finished; this refers merely to 
the filling^of the cases in the spaces that we have for them. 
So the word must not be taken to signify the comple¬ 
tion of the collecting of specimens of all the natural 
products of the county and district;—no, for that would 
take much more room than we have at present allotted to 
m in the.building as it now stands. Even more cases have 
bid to'bejmade, and the Museum-hall is already getting 
crowded'; and yet when completely filled it will not be a 
representation of the whole natural history of the district in 
its completed.form. It is better that it should be thus, as 
it will leave work for those who come after us ; but at the 
same time, it is for us to be working too. Fortunately, 
this is quite practicable, as there are facilities for building 
an addition behind the present building, upon ground 
belonging to the Society. In fact, the Society could 
there erect a much larger building than the present, as 
it could be made higher; so that if ever it was proposed 
again (as was suggested before the Museum was built) to 
amalgamate with the other Museum in Perth, belonging 
to the Literary and Antiquarian Society,—that is to say, 
the natural history portion of it,—there would be no 
difficulty in the way of finding room. But were this 
ever done, great care would have to be taken by the 
Perthshire Society of Natural Science that it should in 
no way interfere with or set aside the purely local character 
of their own Museum, but be kept perfectly distinct. 
However feasible the place for a new addition may be, or 
even if were it only the addition of a few extra cases, more 
money will be required; and while on this subject I would 
strongly bring before you the suggestion thrown out by 
Professor Geikie in opening the Museum, that an attempt 
should be made to collect an Endowment Fund, to pay 
current expenses in keeping up the Museum. This could 
be done by getting a small sum from every one interested in 
the educational advancement of his town or county, which 
“ he believes, if brought properly before the public, would 
meet with gratifying support, and in a short time put the 
Mustum on an independent footing, and relieve the Society 
from the present great strain on its resources.” I sincerely 
trust this will be taken up as it should be, and that the 
suggestion will be found to bear much fruit in the so doing. 
The maintenance of the Museum is a heavy tax on the in¬ 
come of the Society, which is derived only from the annual 
subscriptions of members; and this annual subscrip¬ 
tion is made purposely small, in order that as many 
persons as possible may have the benefits offered to 
members, in the way of the Library, &c. This is, there¬ 
fore, deserving of your most serious attention. 
With regard to the average attendance at the monthly 
meetings, I am glad to report it is on the whole increasing. 
Many interesting papers have been read at these meetings; 
and as they are open to the public, they will no doubt, as 
the Museum gets better known, become more largely 
attended by non-members than they have been heretofore. 
This, however, is no fault of the Press for not bringing 
our doiDgs before the public, which they have invariably 
done. They are deserving of our warmest thanks, which 
I now accord, for the way in which they have so well and 
fully reported, in the newspapers, the proceedings of the 
various meetings, thereby seconding the efforts of the 
