74 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Szss, rxix. 
the collector cannot be held (even in this, the least worthy 
type of collecting) to have wasted time and labour uselessly. 
The habits of observation, and the familiarity with plants in 
their habitat, required to permit of forming a herbarium, 
have stimulated powers that will remain a real gain even to 
those that never advance the progress of botany as a science. 
The formation of a herbarium, while travelling in some 
country very imperfectly explored, if at all previously, 
may have to be so restricted as to serve only “in the authen- 
tication of botanical discoveries made in distant lands.” 
But such a herbarium (though all that the circumstances 
will permit to be formed, and though far more worthy in 
its motive than the first mentioned) is yet far from fulfilling 
the ideals that should be kept in view in the formation of 
one where conditions permit of expressing that ideal in actual 
practice, however imperfectly. 
For a number of years the potential value of herbaria has 
appeared to me to surpass the actual value of any example 
known to me; and the desire to gain a clearer conception 
of what to aim at in forming a herbarium has been much 
with me, and has aided me greatly in gaining a knowledge of 
the plants themselves. I can with confidence say that my 
experience appears to have been very different from that of 
the authors of the report quoted above. Both the pre- 
paration of local lists and the selection and preservation 
of plants to build up a herbarium have brought to me a 
keener interest in the study of living plants in their natural 
environments, and a quickened power of observation, that 
have added greatly to the pleasure and profitof the stwly 
to myself, and have made me more able to help my students. 
The experience of one may, and probably will, be that of 
others ; and in the hope of helping others, I venture to state my 
views regarding herbaria and their relations to biology. 
Why should herbaria be formed ?—Al\though “the dried 
plant is an inadequate substitute for the living and growing 
plant” in botanical education, it does not follow that a 
herbarium is useless to the teacher and pupils, or that a 
most valuable appliance should be discarded because it may 
be improperly used. No experienced teacher will resort to 
dried plants when living examples can be obtained for use 
by the pupils. But it is often desirable to add to the in- 
