Notices of European Herbaria. 181 



The botanical collections occupy a portion of this new building. A 

 large room on the first floor, handsomely fitted up with glass cases, 

 contains the cabinet of fruits, seeds, sections of stems, and curious 

 examples of vegetable structure from every part of the known world. 

 Among them we find an interesting suite of specimens of the wood, 

 and another comprising the fruits or nuts of nearly all the trees of 

 this country, both collected and prepared by the younger Michaux. 

 The herbaria now occupy a large room or hall, immediately over the 

 former, perhaps 80 feet long and 30 feet wide above the galleries, and 

 very conveniently lighted from the roof. Beneath the galleries are 

 four or five small rooms on each side, lighted from the exterior, used 

 as cabinets for study and for separate herbaria ; and above them the 

 same number of smaller rooms or closets, occupied by duplicate and 

 unarranged collections. The cases which contain the herbaria oc- 

 cupy the walls of the large hall and of the side rooms. Their plan 

 may serve as a specimen of that generally adopted in France. The 

 shelves are divided into compartments in the usual manner ; but in- 

 stead of doors, the cabinet is closed by a curtain of thick and coarse 

 brown linen, kept extended by a heavy bar attached to the bottom, 

 which is counterpoised by concealed weights,* and the curtain is. 

 raised or dropt by a pulley. Paper of a very ordinary quality is gene- 

 rally used, and the specimens are attached, either to half sheets or 

 to double sheets, by slips of gummed paper, or by pins, or some- 

 times the specimen itself is glued to the paper. Genera or other 

 divisions are separated by interposed sheets, having the name written 

 on a projecting slip. 



According to the excellent plan adopted in the arrangement of 

 these collections, which is due to Desfontaines, three kinds of her- 

 baria have been instituted; viz. 1. The general herbarium. *2. The 

 herbaria of particular works or celebrated authors, which are kept 

 distinct, the duplicates alone being distributed in the general collec- 

 tion. 3. Separate herbaria of different countries, which are com- 

 posed of the duplicates taken from the general herbarium. To these, 

 new accessions from different countries are added, which from time 

 to time are assorted and examined, and those required for the gene- 

 ral herbarium are removed to that collection. The ancient herba- 

 rium of Vaillant forms the basis of the general collection : the speci- 

 mens, which are all labelled by his own hand, are in excellent preserva- 

 tion, and among them plants derived from Cornuti or Dr. Sarrasin, 

 may occasionally be met with. This collection, augmented to many 

 times its original extent by the plants of Commerson, Dombey, Poi- 

 teau, Leschenault, etc., and by the duplicates from the special her- 

 baria, probably contains at this time thirty or forty thousand species. 

 Of the separate herbaria, the most interesting to us is that made in 

 this country by the elder Michaux, from whose specimens and notes 

 the learned Richard prepared the ' Flora Boreali- Americana.' 



Michaux himself, although an excellent and industrious collector 

 and observer, was by no means qualified for authorship ; and it is to 

 L. C. Richard that the sagacious observations, and the elegant, terse, 

 and highly characteristic specific phrases of this work are entirely due, 



