51 



second creator of Nature ; — all these are arranged and preserved by 

 Sir James with a scrupulous care which almost borders on a kind of 

 religious veneration. The relics of IMohammed are not enshrined 

 with more devotion in the Kaaba at Mecca, than are the collections 

 of Linnaeus in the house of Sir J. E. Smith at Norwich. Whilst we 

 bless the Providence that has placed these treasures of the Northern 

 Prophet in the hands of such a Caliph, from whom (as Sir James, 

 alas ! has no family) they will pass into the possession of some 



h 



valued friend or person who knows how to appreciate and feel their 

 high value^ and who will respect them as national property, — we, of 

 the continent^ n^st ever lament that they have fallen to the lot of 

 the '^ toto disjunctos orbe Britamios ;'' as it is, unhappily, impossible 

 for every botanist to make a voyage to this island, here to compare 

 his specimens with those of Linnsens : " l!<on cuivis homini con^ 

 tingit adire Corinthum.^^ And yet, long as a tribunal hotanicum 

 or a spiodus botanica shall continue to be earnestly desired for that 

 common good, which is as much the object of the botanist as of any 

 other child of Adam, so long must we wish that the following plan^ 

 "which is the only practicable remedy to the distant situation of 

 Linnaeus^s collections, should be adopted. — We would propose that 

 m eveiy place where botany is pursued with energy, a kind of Filial 

 or Branch Herbarium (if I may so call it) should be established ; 

 consisting of such plants only as have been accurately and faithfully 

 compared with the orio-inal collections of Linneeus, Thunberg, 



Pallas, Vahl, Desfontaines, Ruiz and Pavon, Willdenow, Humboldt, 

 ^c. The excellent Sir J. E. Smith would willingly open his trea- 

 sures, and allow every facility to those who held these views. 



If there should arise any opulent botanist on the continent, or if 

 any of the Governments there should institute a complete herbarium, 

 possessing all the Linncean species, (which it would not be difficult 

 at the present day to gather together,) and if such herbarium were 

 ^y the proprietor allowed to be compared by an able botanist with 

 that of Linnau 



s : we 



should then have in that country a faithful 

 '^'^py of the Linnaean Herbarium, which would enable us, in doubtful 

 cases, to determine with precision what it was that the great Swedish 

 naturalist had meant by any given species. Without such a com- 

 parison of the larger collections with each other ; for example, that 



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