BULLETIIV 



OF 



THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Vol. 8 CHARLESTON, S. C, MAY, 1912 No. 5 



THE MUSEUM HERBARIA 



Two years ago the Museum had no working herbarium, today 

 it has 2630 specimens well mounted, labelled, and arranged in a 

 new herbarium case, accessible for instant reference. 



I have called this collection a "working" herbarium to dis- 

 tinguish it from the classic Elliott herbarium which is too old 

 and valuable to be submitted to daily use. 



As is well known the Elliott herbarium was collected by Ste- 

 phen Elliott and furnished the basis for the descriptions of species 

 in his Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia pub- 

 lished in 1821 and 1824. Here are found Elliott's types. This 

 herbarium has been frequently referred to in the pages of the 

 Bulletin and the story of its rescue from complete destruction 

 by mice and insects has already been told. Several years ago 

 it was sent to Biltmore, where it was cleaned and the nomen- 

 clature revised by Messrs. Beadle and Boynton, but it was not 

 mounted, and no rearrangement was made of the original al- 

 phabetical order. The new nomenclature naturally disarranged 

 this order and in consequence the Museum is now making a 

 systematic classification of the entire Elliott herbarium based 

 upon Small's Flora of the Southeastern United States. This 

 precious inheritance is kept in a fire-proof safe and remains a 

 distinct collection as heretofore, available to the specialist but 



not for daily use. 



43 



