223 



MUSEUM NOTES II. 



1 1. -NOTES UPON THE HERBARIUM PRESENTED 

 TO THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB, BY My. J. C. 

 SHENSTONE. 



[As intimated in the last Annual Report of the Council, 

 Mr. Shenstone recently presented his Herbarium to the Club, 

 and he has furnished the following particulars of his collection.] 



rr^HIS Herbarium was commenced in April 1874, '••^^ ^^^^ 

 1 specimens were mainly collected between the years 1874 

 and 1885. 



After the latter year private and public business monopolised 

 my time, and additions to the Herbarium were only made at 

 interv^als, during holiday and Field Club excursions, &c. 



The Collection contains between 800 and goo specimens ; 

 of these between 600 and 700 are " Essex Specimens," and these 

 were all gathered by myself. 



I do not present the collection to the Club as a model of 

 what a Herbarium should be. It was commenced at the time 

 when I was first inspired by an interest in field botany. As 

 usually happens I gained much experience in amassing the 

 specimens, which will be of great service to me in m}' future 

 botanical work. 



It was during the time I was making this collection that I 

 put together the notes embodied in my " Report upon the Flower- 

 ing plants growing in the neighbourhood of Colchester," (Essex 

 Naturalist, Vol. I. pp. 22-35), and the paper " Suggestions for 

 the formation of a County Herbarium," (E.N., vol. iv., pp. 71- 

 78), was founded upon the knowledge gained in gathering 

 together and preparing the Herbarium. 



In handing the Herbarium over to the Essex Field Club, I 

 am aware that it requires much overhauling. It was my in- 

 tention some day to go carefully through all the specimens, to 

 eliminate and replace poor and doubtful specimens, and 

 generally to enlarge and improve the collection, but have been 

 persuaded to hand it over to the Club with all its many faults. 



