28- mi. E. p. PHILLIPS 



botanical investigators, collectors, and travellers may 

 obtain all the information available about a particular 

 plant. The Herbarium is a working tool and a record 

 without which an agricultural country is hopelessly 

 handicapped and is as badly off as a man in business who 

 refuses to take stock or keep accounts. This apt illustra- 

 tion was made by ]>r. Rendle of the British Museum. 

 Whether one considers botanical science in general or the 

 economic aspect in particular it leads back to the first 

 principles — the study of the native flora — in other words, 

 the upkeep of a HerbariuuL The late Prof. Pearson 

 wrote in 1910 : " the foundations of all botanical investi- 

 gations, as well as of all those researches into the 

 problems of plant life which fall within the respective 

 provinces of the chemist, the forester, and the agricul- 

 turist, is a knowledge of the native vegetation." This 

 ♦statement shows that he regarded the herbarium as a 

 necessary adjunct lo ail botanical knowledge. 



Prof. F. AV. Oliver of the London University writes in 

 ilie same .strain asserting that "it is hardly necessary 

 to emphasise the importance of having attached to every 

 district an expeit systematic botanist. \'ery slight 

 specific or varietal dilferences between allied plants are 

 often of critical significance in matters of exj)loitatioiL 

 and it is of fundamental importance, when a given plant 

 is found to be adaj)ted to a particular j)urpose, that w^e 

 should know how lo recognise it with certainty." 



The writer has leceived letters from eminiMit lioianists 

 in olhci- jjarts of the world on the subject of the im- 

 portance of herbaria and he may be allowed to quote 

 their remarks here. 



The Keei>er of the Botanical Department of the British 

 Museum in a recent letter to the writer says: ''If the 

 natural resources of a country are to be developed the 

 first thinj,^ is to find out what they are and then set up 

 n standaid collecti(m for future reference.'" Hero Dr. 

 Kendle intimates that he considers the herbarium esseu: 

 lial to (M'onoinic work. The Assistant Keeper of the 



