362 THE FORSTER HERBARIUM. 



The following is the letter which I wrote to ' Nature,' and 

 which was refused insertion : — 



"It is gratifying to learn that the Kew Herbarium lias acquired 

 from Liverpool a collection of plants made by the Forsters during 

 Cook's second voyage. But I think these plants are much more 

 widely distributed than Mr. Hemsley seems to imply. Laseguc 

 mentions Forster's plants as existing in the herbaria of Sir W. J. 

 Hooker, Vienna and Lcyden ; and DeCandolle (' Phytographic,' 

 p. 412), states that there are " un grand nombre d'echant. de 

 I'expedition autour du monde dans I'herbier de I'Univ. de Kiel," and 

 others in the Paris Museum. 



" At the British Museum we have the -herbarium of G. Forster, 

 purchased at Lambert's sale, which David Don describes as ' the 

 entire Herbarium of George Forster, collected during Cook's 

 circumnavigation, and from which he published his 'Florula of 

 South Sea plants' (Appendix to Lambert's ' Pinus,' p. 28) ; and 

 sets from other localities visited diiring the voyage, and presented 

 by the Forsters to Sir Joseph Banks. Some, at any rate, of these 

 seem more extensive than those received at Kew, e.g., the latter 

 collection contains ' roughly .... 23 from the Atlantic Islands ' ; 

 whereas the list of plants sent to Banks by the Forsters contains 

 78 species from Madeira alone. Our collection of ferns is also 

 much more extensive. Mr. Hemsley says, ' The Cape plants .... 

 are apparently not represented in the museum ' ; but we have a list 

 of 85 species presented to Banks by the Forsters, the specimens 

 corresponding with which are in the National Herbarium. 



"We have also a large collection of drawings — 301 in all — of the 

 plants collected by G. Forster during the voyage." 



Besides the plants referred to above, we have in the Museum a 

 third set, included in the Herbarium of Pallas, which was also 

 purchased at Lambert's sale, and of which an interesting account 

 was published by Lambert in Trans. Linn, Soc. x. 256-265. He 

 says, " George Forster .... sent to Pallas fine specimens of all 

 the plants gathered during his voyage with Cook. I find several 

 species here not in his own herbarium which I purchased some 

 years ago from his father-in-law. Professor Heyne." There is also 

 a fourth set, comprising only a few specimens mounted on small 

 paper and endorsed " G. Forster's little Herbarium." 



There would seem to be some confusion as to G. Forster's own 

 herbarium. Although D. Don describes the collection in Heyne's 

 possession as " the entire Herbarium of G. Forster," the preceding 

 rema]-k of Lambert shows that it did not contain all the plants 

 collected by him.- Moreover, writing to Banks from Cassel, Nov. 

 26, 1780, he says, " We know not whether you were ever informed 

 that, on my quitting England, my books, instruments, curiosities 

 and herbal, were embarked on board a Hamburg trader, which 

 was lost on the coast of Jutland. My chests were saved, it is true; 

 but, owing to my great misfortune, when I received them here, 

 their contents were all thoroughly rotten ; so that the expense 



* The number of species contained in it was 453. 



