146 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. i Vol. XXIV. 



botanists of Victoria during the past ten or more years. The 

 publication of this list forms one acknowledgment of the prior 

 record in such cases, but botanical records should be published 

 in botanical or biological journals recognized as of scientific value, 

 and not scattered in pharmaceutical or medical journals, where 

 they are lost among a host of foreign matter. The existence of 

 some of these records was not known at the Herbarium until 

 quite recently. 



REMARKS ON THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM 

 OF MELBOURNE. 

 By J. R. TovEY (First i^ssistant, National Herbarium). 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 18th Nov., 1907.) 

 In the year 1857 a large building was erected in the Government 

 House Domain for the reception of the botanical specimens 

 accumulated by the then Government Botanist, Baron Ferdinand 

 von Mueller. He also donated, as a free gift, his private col- 

 lection, formed by him since 1840, and incorporated it in the 

 Government collections, thus forming a very valuable herbarium. 

 Through interchanges and geographical expeditions and by the 

 purchase of the herbariums of the late Dr. Sonder, of Hamburg, 

 Mr. F. M. Reader, Rev. Mr. Wilson, and others, these collections 

 have become so much enriched that the sheets containing pressed 

 and dried plants can now be estimated at over a million. 



The Melbourne Herbarium thus ranks among the larger herb- 

 ariums of the world, while it far exceeds any other in its richness 

 of Australian specific forms. In these are included the specimens 

 examined by Bentham when preparing the " Flora Australiensis" 

 and the type specimens of Mueller's numerous species. A collec- 

 tion such as this, is therefore of the highest value in tracing 

 geographic, regional, and geological distribution as well as the 

 range of variation in any given species. 



The Australian collection is kept separate for convenience of 

 daily reference. The names of the contributors towards the 

 Australian portion of the Herbarium can be gathered from the 

 " Flora Australiensis" Mueller's " Fragmenta Phytographice" 

 the Victorian Naturalist, &c. It is worthy of special remark that 

 the Western Australian plants collected by J. Drummond and 

 L. Preiss are largely represented in the Herbarium, while of 

 New Zealand plants the Herbarium possesses collections from 

 Sir Julius Haast, Dr. Sinclair, Professor Kirk, Mr. J. Buchanan, 

 and others. The collections from Papua and Polynesia are 

 especially rich, and are also kept separate for easy reference. 



The Herbarium also contains large collections of European, 

 Asiatic, African, and American plants, the intrinsic value of 

 which may be recognized from the fact that they include large 



