vi HISTORICAL NOTE. 
the national herbaria contain a considerable accumulation of 
material, whieh it is desirable should. be eatalogued after the 
manner of the Botany of Godman and Salvin's ‘Biologia Centrali- 
Americana. Such a catalogue would embody descriptions of all 
undescribed species of which material is available, and references 
to the widely scattered published notices of Chinese plants 
would be intercalated in their proper place. The report would 
therefore give a complete view from all readily accessible sources 
of our present knowledge of the Chinese Flora... . Our 
present ignorance of the vegetation of China is an insuperable 
bar to any rational attempt at generalisation with regard to 
the distribution of the plants of the Palearctic region.” 
The application was acceded to: a Committee was appointed 
consisting of Mr. J. Ball, Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, 
and Prof. Oliver, and a grant of £200 was placed at its disposal. 
The first mecting of the Committee was held at the Royal 
Society on February 7, 1884. The following passage is extracted 
from the Minutes :— 
“Tt was stated that Mr. F. B. Forbes, F.L.S., had as early as 
1875, with the paid assistance of Mr. W. B. Hemsley and others, 
made considerable progress in cataloguing the Chinese plants 
preserved in the Herbaria of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 
and of the British Museum, and that he was actively engaged in 
arranging his material." 
Mr. Forbes attended, by invitation, the next meeting of the 
Committee on February 14 following. He offered very liberally 
to eooperate with it, and it was agreed to employ Mr. Hemsley 
to earry on the work. 
At subsequent meetings the form in which the Catalogue 
should be drawn up was settled, and in 1885 the Chairman, 
Mr. John Ball, addressed on its behalf the following letter to 
the President of the Linnean Society :— 
10 Southwell Gardens, London, S.W. 
13 May, 1885. 
SIR, 
A Committee consisting of Mr. Ball, Professor Oliver, 
Mr. Carruthers, and Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, was appointed last 
year by the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society 
to draw up a Report on our present knowledge of the Flora 
of China. 
The Committee has since been joined, at its invitation, by 
Mr. Forbes, F.L.S., who has most liberally offered his personal 
