Manchester Mcinoii'S^ Vol. Ixi. (iQl/J, No. 5. 



V. Oa the Contents of a Herbarium of British and foreign 

 Plants for presentation to the Victoria University, 

 Manchester. 



By Charles Bailey, M.Sc, F.L.S. 



{Received, and read March 20th ^ igij.) 



Every herbarium represents part of the autobiography of 

 its founder. It will show his weakness and strength; his pre- 

 ferences, idiosyncrasies, and fads. It will disclose his accu- 

 racy, or otherwise, in the records which it includes ; his acumen, 

 or the lack of it, in appreciating the facts and ways of nature. 

 It embalms the friendships of his life, the botanical stimulus 

 which he has received, the countries which he has visited ; it tells 

 of hairbreadth escapes by land and water; it reminds him of 

 threatened arrests for trespassing or poaching. Its accumula- 

 tions testify to the life-giving and life-sustaining pursuits with 

 which its collections have been brought together. It has un- 

 doubtedly introduced him to a long roll of the most worthy 

 and lovable of his fellow-creatures. 



The foundations of a good herbarium rest upon a thorough 

 grounding in the main facts of structural and physiological 

 botany. And of this particular herbarium it may truly be said 

 to have been laid, more than sixty years ago, in the dingy 

 lecture-room of the late Professor W. C. Williamson, in the 

 old Owens College, in Quay Street, Manchester. My revered 

 teacher was therefore its mainspring, and it is fitting, that when 

 I have done with it, it should revert to the University of which 

 Owens was the forerunner. Some particulars, therefore, of its 

 composition will be of interest to future users of this herbarium. 



It consists of four portions : —(i^) British plants, with ex- 

 amples of many non-native plants cultivated in this country; 

 {b) native European and Mediterranean plants, with some plants 

 cultivated on the Continent; U) mosses and lower cryptogams, 

 British and foreign; and {d) American, East Indian, and exotic 

 plants. 



During the course of its formation its ultimate destination 

 had been the subject of frequent consideration with my friend. 

 Dr. J. Cosmo Melvill, formerly of Manchester, now of Meole 

 Brace Hall, near Shrewsbury, who possessed a like 

 extensive herbarium. At one time we were in the habit 

 of subscribing for the same sets of plants from botanists who 

 were collecting in European and other countries, but as we had 

 resolved to present our respective herbaria to the University of 



July i2th, igiy. 



