IMPORTANCE OF STATE HERBARIUM 33 



in methods employed fov combating the disease. Dr. W. M. 

 Bortliwick states that '• America in 1912 had a vote of 

 £4,000,000 for their pathological section and employs a 

 stall of 12.480 men and women, 000-700 of whom are 

 engaged in scientilic research. The money appropiated 

 for the Department in all its branches of activity would 

 amount to £4,514,003. In spite of the magnitude of this 

 sum it is regarded in America as an investment, and not 

 an expenditure '\ 



The Botanical Museum. 



No herbarium is complete unless it possesses a botanical 

 Museum. The main object of the Museum is to show the 

 practical applications of botanical science, but it is also 

 necessary for the preservation and exhibition of such 

 botanical objects as cannot be kept in the herbarium. 

 The preface to the '" Guide to the Museum of Economic 

 Botany -' of Kew sums up the objects of botanical 

 museums so concisely that I quote from this in full. 

 "They (i.e. Botanical Museums) teach us to appreciate 

 the general relations of the Vegetable World to man We 

 learn from them the sources of innumerable products 

 furnished by the Vegetable Kingdom for our use and con- 

 venience, whether as articles of food, of construction and 

 application in the arts, of medicine, or curiosity. They 

 suggest new channels for our industry; they show us the 

 variety- in form and structure presented by plants, and 

 are a means of direct instruction in most important 

 branches of useful knowledge. We see from them the 

 particular points upon which further information is 

 needed, especially as to the origin of many valuable 

 timbers, fibres and drugs, in order to perfect our know- 

 ledge of economic botany, in brief, the Museum shows us 

 how little, as well as hoto much, we know^ of the extent 

 to which herbs, shrubs and trees contribute to our 

 necessities, comforts, and numberless requirements '*. 

 : The economic Museums at the Koyal Gardens, Kew, are 

 by far the most extensive in existence, but large botanical 



