HERBARIUM OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 195 
desiderata, chiefly because it was, in the first place, to be ascer- 
tained how far the extensive collections already in the possession 
of the Society might furnish suites of specimens sufficiently ample 
for the complete illustration of the various species, and, further, 
from the probability that a great portion of such desiderata as 
might remain, especially among the more critical groups, as the 
Rubi, Salices, &c., would be supplied to us by Fellows of the 
Society who have devoted their special attention to the study of 
such groups, and whose labels bear a high authenticity. 
I shall briefly state the extent to which we have, to this time, 
been able to carry out the design of rendering this collection a 
thoroughly standard one, and as complete as possible in respect to 
representatives, not only of each recognized British species, but 
of each marked form or variety. I ought here to say, that from 
the very limited accommodation which the Society can afford to 
this Herbarium, it was early apparent that it would be out of the 
question to attempt to make it illustrate, in anything like com- 
pleteness, the geographical distribution of the respective species 
through our islands ; yet in the selection of the required specimens 
those have been laid in by preference which at the same time 
indicated by their labels a different locality or extension of area. 
The collections which have been accumulating in the Society’s 
rooms over many years have furnished the important nucleus of 
the present Herbarium; these have been successively gone over, 
and such examples selected from them as seemed suited to the 
object in view. Of these collections by far the most important, 
and affording the great proportion of select specimens, was that 
bequeathed to the Society by the late N. J. Winch of N ewcastle- 
on-Tyne, an excellent local botanist, and author of one of the best 
of the older Floras—that of the counties of N orthumberland and 
Durham, published in the * Transactions of the Natural History 
Society of Newcastle.' 
From a condition in his bequest we are not permitted to remove 
his specimens from the paper upon which they are mounted, nor 
to glue down upon the same sheet additional examples; hence 
between these and the papers now in use, uniform in size but 
superior in quality, a difference is sufficiently obvious*. From 
time to time, however, these specimens, which at present form 
perhaps the major part of our collection, may be removed, if thought 
desirable, on the substitution of other and yet better examples. 
* Contributions to the British Herbarium, to which conditions are rir atte 
limiting the Council in their absolute disposal, cannot in future be accepted. 
