REPORT OF THK BOTANICAL WORK COMMITTEK 811 



doing the same work, or to the scientific advantage of having type 

 specimens collected mider one roof instead of two. Their views on 

 other points do not appear to us to be supported by the evidence 

 which we have had before us. 



Taking so far as we have been able everything into considera- 

 tion, and regarding the question from the point of view of the main 

 purpose for which the two collections are maintained, namely, that 

 of botanic research, and therefore dealing in the first instance in 

 the case of the British Museum with the General Herbarium only, 

 we have come to the conclusion that it is desirable that the two 

 herbaria should be united into one 



Taking, then, into consideration all the various arguments 

 which have been adduced on the one side and on the other, we 

 have come to the conclusion that statutory powers should be 

 obtained for the transference of the general herbarium of the British 

 Museum to Kew, accommodation for it and for the present her- 

 barium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, being provided there. 



Besides the General Herbarium, the British Museum possesses 

 the Sloane collections and other pre-Linnean herbaria. It has 

 been urged by some witnesses that these being, mainly of historic 

 or antiquarian value should be retained at the British Museum, as 

 being near to the Departmental Botanical Library, which is at 

 present maintained there, and also not far from the National 

 Library at Bloom sbury. The proximity of the Linnean Herbarium, 

 now in possession of the Linnean Society at Burlington House, 

 has been brought forward as a similar reason. But it seems only 

 natural that the Sloane Herbaria should as heretofore go with the 

 Banksian Herbarium, which forms the nucleus and perhaps the 

 most valuable part of the General Herbarium. And in respect of 

 the advantage of such historic herbaria being in close proximity to 

 a library containing old botanic books, it may be remarked that if 

 the General Herbarium is removed to Kew the chief reason for 

 maintaining a Departmental Botanic Library at the British Museum 

 is done away with, and the main part of the Library should follow 

 the Herbarium to Kew. And indeed it might be further urged that 

 steps should be taken to ensure that the National Botanic Establish- 

 ment, such as Kew would then be, should be the seat of a Botanic 

 Library as complete as possible. 



In respect to the Linnean Herbarium, its retention in so isolated 

 a manner by the Linnean Society would become a still greater 

 anomaly than it is at present if the Sloane Herbaria were removed 

 to Kew, and the same may be said of the collection of the East 

 India Company (including the Wallichian types) also in possession 

 of the Linnean Society. It may fitly be urged that the State ought 

 to become the owners of the Linnean Herbarium and other historic 

 collections now the property of the Linnean Society, if that Society 

 could be induced to part with them, in which case they too should 

 be transferred to Kew. 



There remains to be considered the British Herbarium. This 

 is the only example of that geographic arrangement that was re- 

 commended by the Devonshire Commission as being one of special 



