532 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



the doors ; but a luxury, the cost of which might have been 

 better applied to the purchase of specimens, for which the 

 Academy is very short of funds. The specimens are loose, 

 in double sheets of paper of a large size, and arranged in 

 the Natural Orders, the genera separated by thin sheets of 

 pasteboard, the species under each genus being placed alpha- 

 betically ; the whole loose on the shelves, not tied in bundles, 

 a great advantage over the usual continental custom of having 

 from one to a dozen strings to untie every time you would 

 look at a specimen ; but still, if the herbarium were to be fre- 

 quently consulted, having the disadvantage of not preserving 

 the specimens so well as we do by glueing them down. The 

 collection is rich in Russian and in Brazilian plants, it con- 

 tains all Chamisso's and a very complete set of Sieber's plants, 

 and besides some of the usual Cape collections, a very good 

 one made by Hesse, with a miscellaneous collection from 

 other parts of the world, the whole in very good consulting 

 order, the undetermined and doubtful plants being at the 

 end of each natural order. Besides this general herbarium, 

 there is Marschall von Bieberstein's Tauro- Caucasian her- 

 barium, nearly complete with good specimens, and Trim us s 

 Gramineee, a most extensive series, remarkably rich in 

 authentic specimens. Dr. Meyer, who lives at the Botanic 

 Garden, and is intimate with Dr. Fischer, has not published 

 anything since the Monograph of Ephedra, which appeared 

 two or three months ago ; he is now investigating the Roses 

 allied to R. cinnamomea. Dr. Rupprecht has been at work on 

 the Flora of Russia, and has completed the three last parts of 

 the " Contributions to the Flora of Russia/' containing a 

 critical Enumeration of the plants of the Samoied territory, 

 with several new species, some of them figured ; of the Rus- 

 sian Ferns j of which some are new j and of the plants of the 

 neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, with geographical and 

 historical notes to each. His worldly position at the Academy 

 is not satisfactory for a man of so much ability, and he 

 appears anxious to go out on an expedition round the 

 world. 



