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second creator of Nature ; — all these are arranged and preserved by 

 Sir James with a scrupulous care which almost borders on a kind of 

 rehgious veneration. The relics of Mohammed are not enshrined 

 with more devotion in the Kaaba at Mecca, than are the collections 

 of Linnaeus in the house of Sir J. E. Smith at Norwich. Whilst we 

 bless the Providence that has placed these treasures of the Northern 

 Prophet in the hands of such a Caliph, from whom (as Sir James, 

 alas ! has no family) they will pass into the possession of some 

 valued friend or person who knows how to appreciate and feel their 

 high value, and who will respect them as national property, — we, of 

 the continent, must ever lament that they have fallen to the lot of 

 the " toto disjimctos orbe Britannos ;" as it is, unhappily, impossible 

 for every botanist to make a voyage to this island, here to compare 

 his specimens with those of Linnaeus : " Non cuivis homini con- 

 tingit adire Corinthum." And yet, long as a tribunal botankum 

 or a synodus botanica shall continue to be earnestly desired for that 

 common good, which is as much the object of the botanist as of any 

 other child of Adam, so long ' aust we wish that the following plan, 

 which is the only practical ;i remedy to the distant situation of 

 Linnaeus's collections, should l 2 adopted. — We would propose that 

 in every place where botany is pursued with energy, a kind of Filial 

 or Branch Herbarium (if I may so call it) should be established ; 

 consisting of such plants only as have been accurately and faithfully 

 compared with the original collections of Linnaeus, Thunberg, 

 Pallas, Vahl, Desfontaines, Ruiz and Pavon, Willdenow, Humboldt, 

 &c. The excellent Sir J. E. Smith would willingly open his trea- 

 sures, and allow every facihty to those who held these views. 



If there should arise any opulent botanist on the continent, or if 

 any of the Governments there should institute a complete herbarium, 

 possessing all the Linnaean species, (which it would not be difficult 

 at the present day to gather together,) and if such herbarium were 

 by the proprietor allowed to be compared by an able botanist with 

 that of Linnaeus ; we should then have in that country a faithful 

 copy of the Linnaean Herbarium, which would enable us, in doubtful 

 cases, to determine with precision what it was that the great Swedish 

 naturalist had meant by any given species. Without such a com- 

 parison of the larger collections with each other; for example, that 



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