12 ESSAYS. 
plants collected by the venerable Menzies in Vancouver's voy- 
age, are preserved at the British Museum, the one incorpo- 
rated with the Banksian herbarium, the other forming a sepa- 
rate collection. Those of this country are of the Northwest 
Coast, the mouth of the Oregon River, and from California. 
Many of Pursh’s species were described from specimens pre- 
served in this herbarium, especially the Oregon plants of 
Menzies and those of Bartram and others from the more 
southern United States, which Pursh had never visited, al- 
though he often adds the mark v. v. (vidi vivam) to species 
which are only to be met with south of Virginia. 
The herbarium of Walter still remains in the possession of 
the Fraser family, and in the same condition as when con- 
sulted by Pursh. It is a small collection, occupying a single 
large volume. The specimens, which are commonly mere 
fragments, often serve to identify the species of the “ Flora 
Caroliniana,” although they are not always labelled in accord- 
ance with that work. 
The collections of Pursh, which served as the basis of his 
“Flora Americe Septentrionalis,” are in the possession of Mr. 
Lambert, and form a part of his immense herbarium. These, 
with a few specimens brought by Lewis and Clark from Ore- 
gon and the Rocky Mountains, a set of Nuttall’s collections 
on the Missouri, and also of Bradbury’s so far as they are ex- 
tant, with a small number from Fraser, Lyon, etc., compose 
the most important portion of this herbarium, so far as North 
American botany is concerned. ‘There is also a small Cana- 
dian collection made by Pursh subsequently to the publication 
of his Flora, a considerable number of Menzies’s plants, and 
other minor contributions. To the general botanist, probably 
the fine herbarium of Pallas, and the splendid collection of 
Ruiz and Pavon (both acquired by Mr. Lambert at a great 
expense) are of the highest interest; and they are by no 
means unimportant in their relations to North American bot- 
any, since the former comprises several species from the North- 
west Coast and numerous allied Siberian forms, while our 
California plants require in some instances to be compared 
with the Chilian and Peruvian plants of the latter. 
