ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BU bis T IN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 2. 1905. 
BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 
For half a century Kew, amongst other things, has been engaged 
in the preparation and publication of a series of floras of our 
Colonial and Indian possessions. This amounts in the aggregate 
to a Botanical survey of the Empire. It is still incomplete, but at 
no time has the work ever been intermitted. k 
so long a period the official action by which the enterprise 
was initiated and the successive steps by which it has n 
carried on progressively are easily lost sight of. It is therefore 
desirable for official and public information to print the more 
important documents available connected with it. These have 
only been recovered after a troublesome search at the Record 
Office, the Colonial Office, and at Kew. : 
The Kew Herbarium is now the largest in the world. Owing 
to the close connection between Kew, the Colonies, and India, it 
has been the recipient of vast collections illustrating their vege- 
tation. It is the work of the Herbarium staff to name, preserve 
nomenclature throughout the Empire. What may be called the 
“type-specimens” at Kew are in constant use for comparison by 
botanists of all nationalities who visit it for the purpose. _ 
The activity of the British race in geographical exploration and 
its consequence Colonial development has always been so 
that the influx of new material into the Kew Herbarium has, 
constantly the cup of Tantalus held to their lips, as they have 
little leisure apart from the performance of their routine duties, 
These however in some degree mechanical, are not wholly so, 
and their efficient performance requires scientific knowledge and 
rd 
1375 Wt89 3/06 D&S 29 23812 A 
