104 DE, seemann's study- set. 



Dr. Seemann, in his preface to the * Botany of the Herald,* 

 alludes to " various great names who have conferred upon me the 

 honour of connecting themselves with me in the present under- 

 taking, and whose labours will confer a lasting value upon it." He 

 thus refers to the botanists who monographed various orders : the 

 following is a list of those who undertook the Panama plants, with 

 the orders which they monographed : — 



Menispermaceae and Solanaceae .... J. Miers. 



EuphorbiaceaB F. Klotzsch. 



LeguminosaB (in part) and Labiatse (in part) G. Bentham. 



Compositae J. Steetz. 



Gentianace^ A. H. R. Grisebach. 



ArtocarpeaB and Piperaceae F. A. W. Miquel. 



Orchide^e H. G. Reichenbach fil. 



Cyperaceae and Gramineae Nees ab Esenbeck. 



I have not examined every species from Seemann in these orders, 

 but I have taken two or three at random from each, and in every case 

 I find them named in MS. by the monographer of the order — the 

 CompositcB by Steetz, the Leguminosm and Lahiata by Bentham, the 

 FAiphorhiacecB by Klotzsch, and so on. These are obviously the types 

 for the descriptions of these authors. For the purpose of deter- 

 mining what they meant in their various contributions to the 

 ' Botany of the Herald,' no one can doubt that these specimens, 

 examined by the monographers and written up by them, are the 

 supreme authority. With regard to the orders elaborated by 

 Seemann himself, in so far as the plants are written up by him at 

 the British Museum and Kew, they may be considered as of equal 

 weight: but the types of Miers, Bentham, Klotzsch, Steetz, Grise- 

 bach, Miquel, Nees, and Reichenbach will be sought in vain at Kew. 



An instance or two will illustrate the nature of the study-set 

 now in the British Museum. Mr. Miers, speaking of what, in 

 ' Bot. Herald.,' he called Batschia conferta Thunb., says, ** Here are 

 two specimens," and proceeds to describe them. The same specimens 

 afterwards passed through Triana's hands,* who identifies one of 

 them with Strychnos darienensis Seem., and describes the other as 

 new, under the name of Abiita 8eem,annii,\ which name he has him- 

 self attached to the British Museum sheet. C. DeCandoUe (Bot. 

 Herald,' p. 198) refers (No. 903) to a species of Artanthe as ''A, 

 tilmfoliic et A. caladiifolm affinis," and adds, ** ex unico folio baud 

 deter minanda." The Kew specimen under the same Seemannian 

 number (417) has — so Mr. Hemsley informs me — *• a branch bearing 

 two leaves and two spikes of flowers" : the British Museum specimen 

 consists only of one leaf, and is written up by C. DeCandolle him- 

 self, " Artanthe . . . , A. tiliq/'olicB et A. caladucfolm affinis, ab 

 utraque distincta." It is unnecessary to adduce further evidence to 

 show that, although the collection at Kew may be more extensive 



* " Batschia conferta Miers in Seemann, Bot. of Herald, pp. 76—77 ; Walpers, 

 Ann. iv. 135 {fide specimen autlientic.).'' 

 t Triana in Ann. Sc. Nat. 4th s. xvii. 50, 



