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department, whose time is chiefly devoted to higher executive 
duties. The principal difficulty in utilizing Chinese in this way 
lies in their inability to grasp our system of classification, or to 
ecome accustomed to the Latin names of plants. The latter 
a 
Clematis sheet, for example, is stamped 1-1 and each Carex 199-61. 
A printed alphabetical list of all the genera in the herbarium 
followed by their proper numbers, is pasted inside each cabinet 
door. The numbers of Cryptogamic genera follow on from the 
last numbers of the Genera Plantarum, and have been arranged in 
the same sequence as that adopted in Kew publications. 
The assistants, having received a collection generically named, 
can by the above device number it, classify it and poison it. They 
can then match the specimens with the herbarium sheets, taking out, 
and submitting in batches for verification, the plants which they 
‘ believe to be conspecific. When the correct name has thus been 
obtained they proceed to copy the labels, set aside duplicates, enter 
in the plant lists, and finally, if required, lay into the herbarium. 
‘he numerical system makes it possible for specimens required in 
other parts of the building to be quickly found and brought by the 
assistants, on quotation of the number, and it practically obviates 
all mistakes in the replacing of the plants in their right positions on 
being returned to the herbarium. The writer has also found it 
convenient, when making large collections in the interior, to carry a 
list of the genera and numbers so as to add the latter to the labels, 
which enables the Chinese driers to keep the dried plants in 
systematic order for reference. 
The idea of forming a herbarium in connection with the public 
gardens, then a branch of the Surveyor General’s department 
under the charge of Ford, was first referred to in the official 
report of the latter dated 31st December, 1872. egies Peas 
30 years, which had elapsed since the occupation of the islan et 
the British, a considerable amount of collecting had been done, suc 
well known botanists as Fortune, Hinds, Harland, Champion, and, 
16730 B 
