dOo THE JOUKNAL OF BOTANY 



History of Kew Collections. 



After the death of King George III. and of Sir Joseph Banks 

 in 1820, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, remaining a private 

 garden of the Crown under the charge of the Lord Steward, though 

 assisted by the Treasury and the Admiralty, did not for several 

 years undergo any great development. In 1841, however, it ceased 

 to be a private garden of the Crown. The management was trans- 

 ferred to Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land 

 Revenues, Works and Buildings, and William Jackson Hooker, 

 then Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow, was made director. 

 Professor, afterwards Sir W. J. Hooker, brought with him from 

 Glasgow to Kew, and for some years kept in his own residence, a 

 a large private herbarium, described at the time as the largest in 

 England, if not in the world. This he continued to increase. In 

 1854 Mr. G. Bentham presented to the nation, on certain conditions, 

 his private herbarium, about one-fifth the size of that of Sir W. J. 

 Hooker. This was deposited in a house belonging to the Crown, 

 formerly occupied by the Kmg of Hanover, the use of it being 

 granted for that purpose. In the following year the herbarium of 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, still a private herbarium, was transferred to the 

 same building. In 1865, upon the death of Sir W. J. Hooker, his 

 herbarium was purchased by the State, and this, with the smaller 

 herbarium given by Mr. Bentham, was the beginning of the present 

 national herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Since the 

 death of Sir W. J. Hooker large additions have continued to be 

 made to the herbarium ; and it now consists of more than 2,000,000 

 specimens, and is the recognised official depository of all botanic 

 collections acquired through Government expeditions. 



In an herbarium specimens may be present which are the actual 

 plants made use of in the description of new species by the authors 

 of those species. Such specimens, usually spoken of as "type 

 specimens," have a value of a different order from that of other 

 specimens, and an herbarium may, in general terms, be spoken of 

 as more or less valuable according to the number of "type speci- 

 mens" which it contains. Owing to its mode of origin the General 

 Herbarium of the British Museum is of special value inasmuch as 

 it contains the " type specimens " of the Banksian Herbarium. It 

 is also of value, though of less value, by reason of the type specimens 

 contained in the collections acquired since 1827 ; the additions to 

 it since the transference to Cromwell Road contain many "type 

 specimens," but the increase in such specimens has not been 

 proportionate to the general increase. The pre-Linnean Sloane 

 Herbaria are mainly of value for antiquarian or historical re- 

 searches, and the value of the British Herbarium lies chiefly in the 

 convenience which it offers for all enquiries limited to British 

 plants. The Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has, 

 on the other hand, a special value on account of its being very 

 rich in type specimens of a date posterior to that of the Banksian 

 Herbarium, more particularly of the plants of India and of the 

 British Colonies and Possessions. In all these it is far richer than 



