Abstract
THE Department of Botany, British Museum, has received 320 plants collected by Mr. H. St. J. B. Philby, on his recent Arabian journey and presented by the King of Hejaz and Najd. The plants are of interest botanically as being from an area previously unexplored. It has to be remembered that, from an economic point of view, plants are of the greatest importance in deserts, and according to Mr. Philby the Arabs know them so well as camel food or otherwise that they are able to judge the date of the last rains from their presence or absence. The Arab name is attached to each plant. Acquisitions of the Department of Minerals include meteorites collected by Mr. Philby, a piece from the 15-ton mass of meteoric iron discovered in 1930 near Mbosi in Tanganyika Territory, a piece of a meteoric stone which fell recently near Kirkuk, Iraq, and a specimen of pitchblende from the recently discovered occurrence on the Great Bear Lake, North-West Territory, Canada. Dr. Robert Broom has presented to the Geological Department a small series of South African fossil reptiles, several of which are the types of genera and species recently established by the donor. They belong principally to Therocephalian and Dicynodont genera, and range from Permian to Trias in age. Through the generosity of Rear-Admiral H. Lynes, Mr. Jack Vincent has been collecting for the Museum in Portuguese East Africa, the birds of which are very little known; already two consignments have been received. A collection of more than a thousand birds from Yunnan obtained by the late Mr. G. Forrest, the well-known plant collector, has been presented by the Godman Exploration Fund, while Dr. P. A. Buxton has presented a collection of some 750 birds made by him during the War in Iraq and Persia.
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Acquisitions at the Natural History Museum. Nature 130, 18 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130018b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130018b0