THE CAPE HERBARIUM. 117 



nothing. On the other hand, we lumber our bookd with a uiabs of 

 synonyms, and perplex everyone who takes an interest in ferns, 

 it appears that the name of the well-known Australian genus 

 Uanksia really belongs to Pimelea : the species are therefore to be 

 renamed, and Banksia is to be rechristened Sirmuellera, after Sir 

 Ferdinand von Mueller ; a proposal which, I need hardly say, did 

 not emanate from an Englishman. 



I will not multiply instances. But the worst of it is that those 

 who have carefully studied the subject know that, from various 

 causes which I cannot afibrd the time to discuss, when once it is 

 attempted to disturb accepted nomenclature it is almost impossible 

 to reach finality. Many genera only exist by virtue of their redefi- 

 nition in modern times ; m the form in which they were originally 

 promulgated they have hardly any intelligible meaning at all. 



THE CAPE HERBARIUM. 



[The following account of the origin and history of the Cape Herbarium, 

 reprinted in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information from the Cape Times of 

 October 16th, will be read with special interest at the present time.] 



The Cape Government Herbarium has its home in the upper 

 portion of the offices of the Agricultural Department, Grave Street 

 [Cape Town] , and is under the charge of Professor MacOwan, the 

 Government IBotanist. The collection was originally the private 

 selection made by Carl Zeylier for himself, from the vast quantity 

 of specimens of Cape exsiccata, which he, at first in conjunction 

 with Ecklon, and afterwards alone, collected and prepared for sale 

 to European museums during a period of about thirty years. 

 Zeyher finally visited Europe with a large quantity of scientific 

 material, which he was anxious to place and realise. To raise 

 funds for the voyage, he pledged his herbarium to Dr. Ludwig 

 Pappe, who was an enthusiastic botanist and his friend. On 

 Zeyher' s arrival in Hamburg the whole of the saleable specimens 

 were stored in a warehouse uninsured, and by the irony of fate 

 were burned to ashes with the building they contained. Zeyher 

 was helped back to the Cape by an advance from Dr. W. Sonder, 

 and returned almost penniless. He was never able to repay either 

 of the advances, and by a mutual understanding Pappe satisfied 

 Dr. Sonder's claim, and increased by that amount the hypothecation 

 on the herbarium. Ultimately Zeyher made over the collection 

 to Dr. Pappe, who continued to study and use it daily, by the 

 holder's hearty permission, just as if it had been still his own. 



Dr. Pappe died in 1862, leaving his family in somewhat strait- 

 ened circumstances, and possessors of the considerable botanical 

 library and herbaria accumulated during a long life. Unaware of 

 the mode of exploiting either one or the other, the heritors offered 

 the library for sale at an ordinary auction, and the volumes were, 

 with much grudging, bought by the Public Library Management at 

 a shilling apiece. No buyer presented himself for the herbarium, 



