238 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



His principal point was when he held that the 

 primary principle which ought to underlie the 

 arrangement of all museums, especially for objects of 

 natural history, was the distinct separation of the 

 two purposes for which collections were made : the 

 first a publicly exhibited collection such as the 

 ordinary visitor could understand and profit by, and 

 the second, for students, so arranged as to afford 

 every facility for examination and research. Pro- 

 fessor Flower gave a little advice as to what he 

 considered the beau ideal way of forming a museum. 

 The first consideration is that it should have some 

 definite object or purpose to fulfil ; and the next is 

 that means should be forthcoming not only to 

 establish, but also to maintain the museum in a 

 suitable manner to fulfil that purpose. :What a 

 museum really depends upon for its success and 

 usefulness is not its building, not its cases, not even 

 its specimens, but its curator. He and his staff are 

 the life and soul of the institution, upon whom its 

 whole value depends. A museum, like a living 

 organism, requires continual and tender care. It 

 must grow, or it will perish ; and the cost and labour 

 required to maintain it in a state of vitality is not 

 yet by any means fully realised or provided for, 

 either in our great national establishments or in our 

 smaller local institutions. The real objects of forming 

 collections are two, which are quite distinct, and 

 sometimes even conflicting. The first is to advance 

 or increase the knowledge of some given subject. 

 " I believe that the main cause of what may be fairly 

 termed the failure of the majority of museums— 

 especially museums of natural history — to perform 

 the functions that might be legitimately expected of 

 them is, that they nearly always confound together 

 the two distinct objects which they may fulfil, and 

 by attempting to combine both in the same ex- 

 hibition, practically accomplish neither. In the 

 arrangement of collections designed for research, 

 which, of course, will contain all those precious 

 specimens called ' types,' the principal points to be 

 aimed at are : the preservation of the objects from all 

 influences deleterious to them ; their absolutely correct 

 identification, and record of every circumstance that 

 need be known of their history ; their classification 

 and storage in such a manner that each one can be 

 found without difficulty or loss of time. On the 

 other hand, in a collection arranged for the instruc- 

 tion of the general visitor, the conditions under 

 which the specimens are kept should be totally 

 different. In the first place, their numbers must be 

 limited, according to the nature of the subject to be 

 illustrated and the space available. None must be 

 placed too high or too low for ready examination. 

 There must be no crowding of specimens one behind 

 the other, every one being perfectly and distinctly 

 seen, and with a clear space around it. Every 

 specimen exhibited should be good of its kind, and 

 all available skill and care should be spent upon its 



preservation and rendering it capable of teaching the 

 lesson it is intended to convey. Every specimen 

 exhibited should have its definite purpose, and no 

 absolute duplicate should on any account be per- 

 mitted. Above all, the purpose for which each 

 specimen is exhibited, and the main lesson to be 

 derived from it, must be distinctly indicated by the 

 labels affixed, both as heading of the various divisions 

 of the series and to the individual specimens." 



BOTANY. 



Mounting Plants. — In "Nature" for Sept. 5th, 

 Dr. John Wilson proposes a new method of mounting 

 dried plants. Short strips of lead, such as is used in 

 packing tea, are passed through slits in the paper on 

 each side of the part of the plant to be fastened, and 

 the ends then bent over on the back of the sheet. 



The London Catalogue. — I am perplexed as 

 to the exact meaning of the letters a, b, c, etc., placed 

 before varietal names in the " London Catalogue." 

 For example : — (l) Thalictrum minus. — a. mari- 

 tinwn ; b. montanum ; c. Jlextiosjcm. (2) Viola 

 odorata. — b. alba; c. permixta ; d. sepi)tcola. Will 

 you kindly oblige me by saying if I am correct in 

 thinking that all our plants of T. mitius can be 

 referred to one of these three forms, whilst, in the 

 second case, there is a true V. odprata, and in addition, 

 three forms, b, c, and d. — T. N. Woodhead. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Clutches of Eggs. — Your charming publication 

 should most certainly not be the place for a display of 

 vindictiveness, but as I have been so pointedly 

 attacked by two of your correspondents, I hope I may 

 be allowed to say a word or two. To satisfy Mr. 

 Wheldon's curiosity, I beg to| inform him that I have 

 not collected the eggs of other birds on the same scale 

 that I have those of the sparrow, but, if I wanted a 

 long series of clutches of any particular bird, I should 

 not hesitate to obtain them. When any one attempts 

 to be sarcastic, it is as well to be in possession of 

 facts ; I therefore think it would have been quite as 

 well if Mr. Wheldon had put himself in possession of 

 the fact that the eggs in question were not collected 

 in the immediate vicinity of Royston, thereby 

 making sparrow clubs unnecessary ; but were col- 

 lected over an area of more than twenty thousand 

 acres of purely corn-growing land. I also wish to 

 ask Mr. Wheldon if he has, during the seventeen 

 years' collecting in which he prides himself, given 

 to the public in statements and figures any of 

 the oological peculiarities and phenomena he must 

 have met with. I should also like to know if the one 

 specimen egg-collecting, which Mr. Blugg so strongly 

 advocates, has ever been instrumental in elucidating 

 any peculiarities or previously unrecorded facts ; if 

 not, I fear such collecting must be of a rather school- 

 boy character. I always look to your field and other 

 notes with considerable interest for any scraps of 

 fresh or novel information, and I most sincerely hope 

 when any fresh subject is broached in your journal it 

 may be met in a friendly spirit, not with ridicule 



