198 HKINRICH (tUSTAV REICHENBACH. 



tliat period are in a consultable condition — botanists are deprived 

 of the use of this invaluable collection. The result of this provision 

 must be to impair its value, while its usefulness will be reduced to 

 the narrowest hmits. The just appreciation of " types," which has 

 been steadily gaining ground for many years, combined with the 

 facilities for travelling, have rendered it quite usual for a mono- 

 grapher to visit the principal herbaria of Europe ; and the gain to 

 science has been immense. Nothing but the inspection of the 

 actual specimens from which a species has been described, duly 

 authenticated by the describer, can be considered as the final court 

 of appeal ; and nothing less than finality, whenever possible, will 

 satisfy the conscientious monographer. 



Our contemporary the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' seems to us 

 hardly to appreciate the full effect of Prof. Eeichenbach's action. 

 The editor owes so much to Kew that he can hardly be blamed for 

 paying repeated tribute to "the unrivalled sources of that insti- 

 tution," and it is certain that, not only in the Kew and British 

 Museum Herbaria, — the former of especial value as containing 

 Lindley's Orchid types, — but in all other large collections, the 

 Orchidacea are duly represented. But to say that these " will go 

 very far to nullify the perverseness of these testamentary dis- 

 positions," is to ignore the difficulty, and, indeed, fails altogether 

 to recognise the serious nature of the case. So far as Prof. 

 Reichenbach's types are found only in his own herbarium, — and we 

 believe that this is very largely the case, — the botanical world will 

 be deprived of them for a quarter of a century ; and so far as these 

 types are concerned, the herbaria of the whole world cannot in any 

 way modify or " nullify " the injury caused to systematic botany by 

 this action, so unworthy of Prof. Reichenbach. 



At the same time, I confess that it is difficult to understand 

 on what grounds it should have been assumed, as seems to have 

 been the case, that the collection would come to England. The 

 * Saturday Review' of June 8th, in a curious article on "Professor 

 Reichenbach's Will," says: — "It has been understood by all the 

 universe .... that ever since Prof. Reichenbach left this land in 

 1863 [his] gigantic and priceless collections would be left to Kew. 

 If he never declared the resolve, in private conversation he allowed 

 it to be taken for granted." A more misleading statement it would 

 be difficult to find. Prof. Reichenbach had, indeed, and never 

 failed to express, the highest regard for Prof. Oliver, but he certainly 

 never led us to suppose that his plants were to go to Kew, although 

 I learn that in Germany such a destination was not considered 

 unlikely. 



Regrettable as the decision is on scientific grounds, it is equally 

 so in the light in which it places the character of our great 

 orchidologist. It is painful to feel that a career of usefulness and 

 helpfulness should be terminated by an action which, so far as is 

 possible, hinders the development of a branch of science which its 

 perpetrator had spent his life in advancing. 



James Britten. 



