LINNBAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 39 



British Museum the large Collection of Sir Joseph Banks in 

 accordance with the terms of his will. The extensive and 

 important additions that have since been incorporated with the 

 Banksian Herbarium have increased it more than twentyfold. 

 These additions include the Sliuttleworth Herbarium, containing 

 the plants of Eoemer ; the African plants of Welwitsch and 

 Schimper ; the American plants of Nuttall, G-ardner, and Miers ; 

 the Asiatic plants of Pallas, Horsfield, and Wallich ; the Austra- 

 lian plants of Robert Brown and Drummond ; the Ferns of John 

 Smith ; and the Mosses and Liverworts of* Wilson and Hampe. 



To these have been added the plants collected in Ceylon by 

 Hermann, and afterwards employed by Linnseus for his Elora of 

 that island, and the plants collected by John Eay in his travels 

 on the continent of Europe. The gap between the herbaria of 

 Sloane and Banks has been filled up by the plants of Chelsea 

 Grardens and the Collections of Dale and Nichols, presented to 

 the Trustees by the Apothecaries' Company. Thus the great Her- 

 barium and the other collections in the British Museum represent 

 the progress of botanical science and the work of botanists in one 

 unbroken series, from the days of Eay, Hermann, and Sloane to the 

 present time. 



The collection of seeds and fruits is arranged in cabinets 

 placed along the centre of the Herbarium Grallery, following the 

 same order as the plants in the Herbarium. 



By the plan adopted in arranging the Herbarium cabinets in 

 the gallery a series of secluded recesses between the projecting 

 cases are obtained, where the collection can be consulted by the 

 scientific worker without interruption. 



The extensive Herbarium of British Plants is founded upon the 

 collections formed by Sowerby while preparing his ' English 

 Botany,' and now includes the Herbaria of my late partner 

 Edward Forster, of Carroll, Trimen, Wilson, and others. Con- 

 nected with the British Herbarium is an extremely important 

 collection of original Drawings of British Plants, made by Sowerby 

 and Salter for ' English Botany,' by Sowerby for ' English Fungi,' 

 as well as unpublished Drawings of British Fungi by W. Gr. 

 Smith, F.L.S., and the late Mrs. Eussell. 



The Drawings of Ehret, Parkinson, and especially of Francis 

 and Ferdinand Bauer, enrich the general collection. 



The public exhibition of botanical specimens in the Museum 

 has hitherto consisted of plants or parts of plants that were 

 thought to be suited to such a purpose. In the new gallery Mr. 

 Carruthers determined to give a systematic representation of the 

 whole Vegetable Kingdom. Such a representation is given as 

 will enable an intelligent visitor to form some idea of the prin- 

 cipal groups into which plants are divided, and of the points of 

 resemblance or difierence on which the groupings are based. 

 The species themselves are represented by stems, foliage, and 

 fruit ; but as these fragments of dead and dried plants do not 



