IIEIIBAIIIUM or THE LINJSEAF 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 

 Buhi, Salices, &c., would be supplied to us by Eellows 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 Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne, an excellent local botanist, and author of one of the best 

 of the older Floras — that of the counties of Northumberland and 

 Durham, published in the ' Transactions of the Natural History 

 Society of Newcastle.' 



Erom 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 annexed 

 Umiting the Council in their absolute disposal, cannot in fiiture be accepted. 



