102 



DE. SEEMANN'S STUDY-SET. 

 By James Britten, P.L.S. 



In a notice of the first two parts of the botanical portion of the 

 •Biologia Can trali- Americana,' I mentioned,* among other col- 

 lections in the British Museum, '' the study-set of Seemann's 

 * Botany of the Herald.' " 



In the 'Appendix' to the 'Biologia' (p. 132), Mr. Hemsley 

 writes: "The first set of [Seemann's] Panama and Mexican 

 collections is at Kew, where Seemann, assisted by Sir Joseph Hooker 

 and Mr. A. A. Black, then Curator of the Herbarium, elaborated 

 his * Botany of the Voyage of the ' Herald,' ' and not at the British 

 Museum, if that is what is intended by * study-set ' in a statement 

 published in the ' Journal of Botany.' " 



In the face of this direct contradiction of my statement, it seems 

 desirable to show the real nature of Dr. Seemann's ' Herald ' 

 collections included in the herbaria of the British Museum and 

 Kew ; and this I now propose to do. 



The matter originally came up in the suit of the King of 

 Portugal V. Carruthers with regard to Dr. Welwitsch's plants, some 

 accomit of which will be found in this Journal for 1875.t Mr. 

 Carruthers there gave the following account of Dr. Seemann's 

 collections during the voyage of the ' Herald ' : — 



" The late Dr. Berthold Seemann was appointed Naturalist in the 

 Government Expedition of the • Herald ' in the year 1846, and was 

 paid by the Government for his services. In the course of the voyage 

 he made extensive collections of plants, and on his return to England 

 he was employed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to 

 publish a description of the said collections, and was paid a salary 

 for so doing. The study-set of plants, containing the names of the 

 species, and the notes and descriptions of himself and the botanists 

 who assisted him, remamed his private property, and were purchased 

 from him by the Trustees of the British Museum, and now form 

 part of the National Herbarium under my charge." 



Inhis affidavit in answer to this statement, on Nov. 28th, 1874, 

 Sir Joseph (then Dr.) Hooker said : — 



*' Dr. Seemann's instructions were to send the whole of the col- 

 lections of plants formed by him to the Admiralty, from whence they 

 were transmitted to Sir Wilham Hooker at the Royal Gardens, Kew. 

 The whole of Dr. Seemann's collections were so sent home or brought 

 home on his return voyage, and this latter portion Dr. Seemann simi- 

 larly made over on his return. The bulkof the collections was arranged, 

 and some of the duplicates distributed, before Dr. Seemann's return 



* Journ. Bot. 1880, 90. 



t It may be noted by the way that the term "study-set" first came into use, 

 I believe, on this occasion : when Mr. Carruthers employed it in his affidavit 

 (2nd Oct. 1874) : — " It is a very unusual thing for a naturalist who has collected 

 new species to part with his own, that is, the study-set. Such set is made 

 specially for himself, and as an authority to be referred to when any questions 

 arise respecting nomenclature." 



