LTNlTEAJf SOCIETY OF LOKDON. xlv 



skeletons and anatomical preparations, as well as by the nests and 

 eggs of the oviparous classes — insects with their eggs, larvae, and 

 pupa?, shells with the animals which produce them, &c., — always 

 with the addition, as far as possible, of the collectors' memoranda 

 as to station, habit, ttc, in the same manner as herbarium speci- 

 mens are now frequently most usefully completed by detached 

 fruits, seeds, young plants in germination, gums, and other products. 



Here, however, wiU arise another source of false data, to be 

 carefully guarded against — the mismatching of specimens, wliich in 

 botauy has probably produced more false genera and species than 

 the misplacing of garden labels. The most careful collectors have 

 in good faith transmitted flowers and fruits belonging to different 

 plants as those of one species, the fruits perhaps picked up from 

 mider a tree from which they were believed to have fallen — or two 

 trees in the same forest, with similar leaves, the one in flower, the 

 other in fruit, supposed to be identical, but in fact not even con- 

 geners ; and the mismatching at the various stages of drying, sort- 

 ing, distributing, and finally laying in the specimens have been 

 lamentably frequent. Collectors' memoranda, if not immediately 

 attached to the specimens, or identified by attached numbers, have 

 often led the natui-alist astray ; for collectors are but too apt, instead 

 of noting down any particulars at the time of gathering, to trust to 

 their memoiy when finally packing up their specimens. And so 

 long as reasoning by analogy was never allowed to prevail over a 

 hasty glance at a specimen and the memoranda attached to it, false 

 genera and species arising from these errors were considered indis- 

 putable. MagaUana of Cavanilles was till recently allowed mate- 

 rially to invahdate the character of Tropoeoleas, overlooking the 

 strong internal evidence that it was founded upon the fruit of one 

 natural order carelessly attached to a poor flowering specimen of 

 another. 



Zoological museums and botanical herbaria differ very widely in 

 the resources at their disposal for formation, maintenance, and ex- 

 tension of their coUeetions. Zoological museums are by far the 

 most expensive, but, on the other hand, as exhibitions they can 

 draw largely on the general public, whilst herbaria must rely mainly 

 upon science alone, which is always poor ; both, however, may claim 

 national assistance on the plea of instruction as well as of pure 

 science ; and for practical or economic purposes the herbarium is 

 even more necessary than the museum. The planning the new 

 museums so as best to answer these several purposes for which they 

 are required, has, I understand, engaged the attention of the Eoval 



