88 
to go through the whole series, taking nothing for granted and 
sublimatizing everything, precisely as should have been done after 
the original purchase ; and next, to supply from his own and other 
sources additional sheets of authentic specimens supplementary to 
the older and more or less damaged examples. It is in this way 
that the large increase in the bulk of the collection has come 
about. Another excellent result indirectly following is the 
enlargement of the geographical area represented. It has 
happened that the localities in which the Curator and_ his contri- 
butory botanical friends have prosecuted their studies for the last 
thirty years are different from those particularly sought over by 
Ecklon and Zeyher. It is only since 1878 or thereabouts that the 
older botanists’ happy hunting-grounds in the Cape West and the 
Peninsula have been beaten once more. ‘Therefore in all these 
renewals and intercalations, not merely the betterment of the study- 
specimens has been secured, but also a permanent record of the 
ora of localities very insufficiently or not at all worked over by 
Ecklon, Zeyher and Drege.” 
By 1901 there were 61 cabinets comfortably full. His reference 
to the additions of his collections is characteristically modest. I 
can put it a little more plainly by stating that he brought an 
enormous mass of his duplicates from Somerset East at his own 
expense, and incorporated them with the Government Herbarium. 
The herbarium was removed with the Agricultural Department 
into a building in Grave Street where the accommodation was 
ample, but the risk of its being destroyed by fire constantly haunted 
him. As a matter of fact, the adjoining property was destroyed 
by fire, and the herbarium premises were only saved as if by a 
miracle, after portions had actually been set alight. At last, the 
Government granted him a special building at the back of the South 
African Museum, but to say the least, it was not worthy of the 
collections it was to house, nor of the man who was to take charge 
of it. Here, however, he spent his last years before he gave up all 
official work, 
Ww 
his enthusiasm for the beautiful Flora eanidst which he ha nt 
the best years of his life, nor his energy in ba veetiigetiig £6 “With- 
out his self-sacrificing aid the present undertaking would have been 
